This Article summarizes Nobody’s Watching. It also examines some of the consequences of failing to enforce ethical rules for lawyer conduct and offers some lessons for future rule development and enforcement. Part III considers some of the academic and practical significance of Nobody’s Watching. The Article concludes by noting that Nobody’s Watching offers academics, lawyers, and regulators a valuable tool to better understand and improve the regulation of the profession

Sahl, John

English

University of San Diego

Behind Closed Doors: Shedding Light on Lawyer Self-Regulation-What Lawyers Do When Nobody\u27s Watching

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

The University of Akron