The executive director of the state’s judicial watchdog agency is retiring from the post he’s held for two years.

Ben Easterlin, a former chairman of the Judicial Qualifications Commission and former president of the State Bar of Georgia, was hired in 2017 to shepherd the formation of a newly constituted commission after it was abolished by a state constitutional amendment in 2016.

Easterlin announced his retirement on Friday but said he will remain on the job until his successor is selected.

“It has been a privilege to work with the dedicated and selfless public servants that give generously of their time and talent as members of the commission,” he said. “I am proud to have played a role in regenerating the Judicial Qualifications Commission so that it possesses a solid foundation to perform its important role in the judicial system.”

Easterlin’s announced departure comes after JQC chairman Edward Tolley stepped down after his term expired June 30.

The JQC has authority to investigate ethics complaints against the state’s judges, to bring formal ethics charges and to recommend disciplinary action to the Supreme Court of Georgia.

Easterlin took the helm of what was then an agency in disarray after he retired as a partner at King & Spalding in Atlanta. Easterlin served as a commissioner from 2002-2010, including a stint as chairman.

He said he always intended that his tenure as executive director would be “a short-term commitment.”

When Easterlin was hired, the executive director’s post had been vacant for six months after its former executive director, Mark Dehler and its former chairman, Cartersville attorney Lester Tate, resigned when the state General Assembly placed a constitutional amendment on the 2016 ballot. That amendment abolished the independent agency on Jan. 1, 2017, and gave the Legislature sole authority to reconstitute and determine its governance.

Legislation dramatically altered the composition and responsibilities of what had been a seven-member commission to one with ten members divided between an investigative panel that handles complaints and a judicial panel that adjudicates them.