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 (21-95) asking whether you may attend, as a guest of your spouse, a multi-day annual conference, located in a different part of the state from where you preside, attended solely by prosecutors. In addition, you ask whether you may attend the association's annual dinner, a social event at which the only business conducted is the installation of new officers. You indicate that you will not attend any of the substantive programs given at the conference but, instead, will simply be staying at the hotel hosting the conference. In addition, your spouse is entitled to bring a guest to the annual dinner. To the extent any additional costs are incurred, you have indicated that you would pay for them out of pocket.