Professor Jack Sahl receives Ohio State Bar Association Award for ethics and professionalism

04/30/2019

John (Jack) P. Sahl

John (Jack) P. Sahl

The Ohio State Bar Association (OSBA) has awarded John (Jack) P. Sahl the 2019 Eugene R. Weir Award for Ethics and Professionalism, the highest ethics recognition the bar awards. Sahl is the Joseph G. Miller Professor of Law and Director of The Joseph G. Miller and William C. Becker Center for Professional Responsibility at The University of Akron School of Law. 

The award recognizes exceptional professional responsibility among Ohio lawyers. The OSBA Board of Governors established the award in 1998 to honor the memory of Eugene R. Weir, a former member of the board who championed improvements to regulations governing lawyers and advocated for professionalism and legal ethics. It is given to one attorney each year.

Professor Sahl was recognized for his work to promote and uphold legal professionalism and ethics both in Ohio and on a national and international level.

“I am deeply honored by this award, particularly as someone who has been an ardent advocate for greater collaboration between the legal academy and the bar,” Sahl said. “Thus, it is both satisfying and humbling to have the bar recognize my efforts.

Jack Sahl of the University of Akron School of Law

John (Jack) P. Sahl, the 2019 recipient of the Eugene R. Weir Award for Ethics and Professionalism (left), with Robin Weaver, president of the Ohio State Bar Association's Board of Governors.

“For me, I’ve always enjoyed getting down in the trenches with others in the bar to reform rules or to uphold professionalism and ethics standards to protect the public and the profession. I was very fortunate to have worked with Gene Weir for several years on the Ethics Committee. Gene mentored me on my first investigation of a lawyer misconduct case.”

"When it comes to legal ethics and professionalism, Jack Sahl has indeed raised the bar,” OSBA President Robin Weaver said. “The OSBA is honored to have this opportunity to recognize Jack's significant body of work and his abiding commitment to ensuring current and future lawyers live up to the highest standards of professional conduct."

Sahl joined the Akron Law faculty in 1991 and has been involved with the Miller Becker Center since its inception, more recently as a director or faculty director since 2008. He is a frequent national and international speaker, consultant, writer and expert witness on professional responsibility matters.

He has served on OSBA committees concerning legal ethics and professional conduct since 1994. He was appointed by the Ohio Supreme Court to a three-year term on the Ohio Board of Commissioners for the Unauthorized Practice of Law. While working with the OSBA, he also served on the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association Ethics and Professionalism Committee since 1991, including serving as chair in 2012-13.

Nationally, he chairs the Publications Board of Editors for the American Bar Association (ABA) Center for Professional Responsibility and serves on the center’s Michael Franck Professional Responsibility Award Selection Committee. He chaired the Editorial Board of the ABA/Bloomberg BNA Lawyers’ Manual on Professional Conduct and was a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Professional Discipline. In 2013, Sahl also served as chair of the Association of American Law Schools Professional Responsibility Section.

“We are proud to have a distinguished member of our faculty recognized in this way by the state bar association,” said Christopher J. (C.J.) Peters, Akron Law dean and C. Blake McDowell Jr. Professor of Law. “It is good for our students to know that one of their teachers is so respected by practicing attorneys and so active with the bar. This also reflects well on the Miller Becker Center. All three of its directors have now received this award. Bill Becker, one of the center’s founders, is a past recipient, as is Jack’s predecessor, Frank Quirk.”