Document Type

Article

Publication Date

January 2011

Abstract

This Article examines the significance of Professor Fred C. Zacharias’s work, What Lawyers Do When Nobody’s Watching: Legal Advertising as a Case Study of the Impact of Underenforced Professional Rules. Following the Introduction, Part II of the Article summarizes Nobody’s Watching – an empirically based study of lawyers in California who advertised in the yellow pages of telephone books. Part II reviews Professor Zacharias’ findings and analysis concerning unenforced or underenforced ethics rules regulating lawyer advertising. Part III discusses the significance of Nobody’s Watching as an early empirical study of lawyer advertising in the field of professional responsibility and its impact on the legal field. Part III also provides an interdisciplinary analysis of Nobody’s Watching. It notes that many of Zacharias’ findings and conclusions in Nobody’s Watching track the work of leading sociologists who have been studying professions and other organizational behavior for some time. The Article concludes by suggesting that Zacharias was a transformational scholar in the field of professional responsibility and that Nobody’s Watching provides a helpful roadmap for avoiding some of the adverse consequences associated with the underenforcement of ethics rules.

Publication Title

San Diego Law Review

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