The Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics responds to written inquiries from New York state's approximately 3,600 judges and justices, as well as hundreds of judicial hearing officers, support magistrates, court attorney-referees, and judicial candidates (both judges and non-judges seeking election to judicial office). The committee interprets the Rules Governing Judicial Conduct (22 NYCRR Part 100) and, to the extent applicable, the Code of Judicial Conduct. The committee consists of 27 current and retired judges, and is co-chaired by former associate justice George D. Marlow of the Appellate Division and the Honorable Margaret Walsh, a justice of the Supreme Court.

Digest: Where a judge is being sued for acts allegedly undertaken in his/her former official capacity as a city attorney, rather than for conduct in his/her individual capacity: (1) During the representation, the judge is disqualified, subject to remittal, from matters involving the specific city attorney(s) who are personally involved in the judge's representation. Once the representation concludes, the judge may preside in matters involving those attorneys, provided he/she can be fair and impartial, and disclosure is entirely in his/her discretion. (2) Both during the representation and afterward, the judge may otherwise preside in matters involving the city and other co-defendants, city employees and other witnesses, and city attorneys who have no involvement in representing the judge, provided the judge can be fair and impartial. Disclosure is within the judge's discretion.

Rules: 22 NYCRR 100.2; 100.2(A); 100.3(E)(1); 100.3(F); Opinions 20-82/20-86; 15-218; 13-41; 12-12; 10-69.