Login | May 02, 2024
Akron Law welcomes new Miller Becker Center director
SHERRY KARABIN
Legal News Reporter
Published: February 2, 2024
Northeast Ohio native Heather Zirke has taken the reins as the new director of the Joseph G. Miller and William C. Becker Center for Professional Responsibility at The University of Akron School of Law.
Zirke, who is also an assistant professor of law, started as director at the beginning of 2024, after holding the title of interim director of the center since June.
She replaced former Director and Emeritus Law Professor Jack Sahl, who retired last May.
Zirke runs a solo practice and previously served as bar counsel, and most recently general counsel at the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association, where she worked for 16 years.
“I was not looking to make a change but I was very fortunate that this job came to me,” said Zirke. “I have been involved with the Miller Becker Center for many years and I feel passionate about its mission of enhancing public trust and confidence in the legal profession and the judicial system.”
At the time she was approached last spring, Zirke was an adjunct faculty member.
“I was teaching my first course at the law school, which was a professional responsibility class,” said Zirke. “It was a great experience that got me excited about the possibility of teaching.
“I am currently teaching two sections of the professional responsibility course,” said Zirke. “I’m looking forward to helping students develop their unique professional identities based on the rules of legal ethics and their own personal values.”
Akron Law Dean Emily Janoski-Haehlen said Zirke’s background aligned perfectly with the dual roles of faculty member and director.
“Heather had so much experience in ethics in the state of Ohio,” said Janoski-Haehlen. “She taught a professional responsibility class here as a part-time faculty member and told me that she came alive in the classroom and felt that was where she was meant to be. That’s exactly the kind of person I want as a faculty member.
“The Miller Becker Center exists to promote legal ethics in the profession in Ohio and that is exactly what she has spent her life doing, so it was a perfect fit,” Janoski-Haehlen said.
Janoski-Haehlen said Zirke was highly recommended by attorneys who practice in the legal ethics area and by Sahl, who had worked with Zirke during her tenure at the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association.
In an earlier interview with the Akron Legal News, Sahl said he helped recruit Zirke and was “ecstatic that she was selected.” He added, “The center will thrive under her leadership,” stating “she is also a wonderful role model for our students.”
Born in Alliance, Ohio, Zirke moved to Akron in her early teens and graduated from Firestone High School (now known as Firestone Community Learning Center).
“I was excited about the opportunity to be part of the Akron community again since I attended middle school and high school here,” said Zirke.
After obtaining her bachelor’s degree from Baldwin Wallace University, where she majored in English and religion, she earned her juris doctorate from Cleveland State University College of Law in 2002.
She began her legal career as an assistant prosecutor for the city of Cleveland.
“I handled misdemeanor cases,” said Zirke. “I was in court every day so I got a lot of trial experience.”
In 2005, she started a position as assistant counsel at the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association. She was promoted to bar counsel in 2015 and spent her last two years at the association as general counsel.
When she left in 2022, she started the Zirke Law Firm in Berea. She primarily represented lawyers facing grievance investigations and law students looking to take the Ohio bar in character and fitness matters.
“I have wound down the biggest pieces of my practice involving grievance and character and fitness,” she said. “I continue to do expert witness work and some consulting for small firms and solo practitioners who need advice on legal ethics.”
As director, Zirke plans to continue to bring distinguished guest speakers to the law school for the biannual lecture series and carry on the nationally known Miller Becker Seminar, which is co-sponsored by the Ohio Supreme Court’s Board of Professional Conduct.
“I have known Jack Sahl for a long time,” said Zirke. “I attended some of the lectures that he organized. I plan to continue the good work that he did for so many years to ensure that the Miller Becker Center is nationally recognized for its commitment to legal ethics.
“We have an advisory board of distinguished lawyers and judges from across the country and I’m really looking forward to working with them on future programming.”
Zirke would also like to start a new tradition of recognizing someone who works in the Ohio disciplinary system with an annual Miller Becker award.
“Many Ohio attorneys and judges are doing amazing work in the field of attorney discipline to protect the public and educate lawyers,” said Zirke. “Many of them do this work on a volunteer basis. It is work that is not celebrated because it often involves lawyers in crisis or members of the public who have been harmed.
“I have tremendous respect and admiration for the people who are doing the quiet work of policing our profession and defending lawyers and the Miller Becker Center is the right organization to recognize them.”
Additionally, she plans to engage in research and writing on the subject of professional responsibility.
A member of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association and the American Bar Association’s Center for Professional Responsibility, Zirke has served on the Berea City School District Board of Education for two years, where her two children attend high school.
She is also a member of the Berea Education Foundation.
“As a product of public schools and a first-generation college graduate, I am a big supporter of public education,” said Zirke. “I am so happy to be joining Akron Law, a public university that is creating opportunities for the next generation of legal professionals.”