[I am posting this memorial notice on behalf of Fred's friend Bruce Green -- BW]
It is with sadness that I report the death of Professor Fred Zacharias on November 8, at the much too young age of 56, after a valiant, months’-long battle with a rare form of cancer. Fred was a good friend of mine and of many others in the legal ethics community as well as a leader in, and outstanding contributor to, the field.
Fred was a prolific scholar. It was my privilege to co-author nine articles with him over the past decade, and that was just a small proportion of his prodigious output. Fred was happy to tackle, and bring his insights to, virtually any issue in the field, and rarely turned down a chance to contribute to a conference or symposium. A former defense lawyer, Fred often brought his experiences from practice into his scholarship, while at the same time keeping current on academic writings in order to advance scholarly conversation in the field. Fred was among the handful of most frequently cited scholars of his generation.
As past chair of the AALS Professional Responsibility Section and regular contributor to the section’s newsletter, Fred sought to advance teaching no less than scholarship. Having attended many of Fred’s talks at the ABA National Conference and at academic conferences, I can attest that Fred took his role in the classroom as seriously as he took his writing. He also served the profession with dedication, including as a consultant on the Restatement of the Law Governing Lawyers and on other ALI projects and as a member of his city bar’s ethics committee. In recognition of his outstanding contributions, Fred received numerous distinctions at the University of San Diego School of Law, where he taught for almost two decades, including most recently as the Herzog Endowed Research Professor and, this summer, as the inaugural holder of the Donald Weckstein Summer Research Professorship.
On a personal note, among the things I
most valued in our friendship were Fred’s generosity of spirit and his
commitment to friends and family. Fred is survived by his wife, Sharon, and
by his sons, Eric and
Blake, and by his mother, brother and sister-in-law.
Letters of condolence may be sent care of the law school. I mourn his
passing.
-Bruce Green