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 the Honorable Margaret Walsh, a justice of the supreme court, and the Honorable Lillian Wan, a court of claims judge and acting supreme court justice. 

This responds to your inquiry (20-127) asking about your ethical obligations on learning, from the attorneys' own submissions in a case, that their clients failed to file tax returns for multiple years. You also ask what obligations the attorneys may have had to their respective clients before making these admissions.

We decline to comment on what the attorneys should or should not have done, as that involves assessing the past conduct of third parties under the Rules of Professional Conduct.