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 28 current and retired judges, and is co-chaired by the Honorable Debra L. Givens, an acting justice of the supreme court in Erie County, and the Honorable Lillian Wan, an associate justice of the appellate division, second department.

Digest: A new full-time judge may engage in activities designed to wind down his/her prior professional corporation and collect previously earned legal fees. The judge may represent him/herself in negotiating a fee splitting or quantum meruit agreement with a successor law firm regarding legal fees earned prior to assuming the bench, although the fee agreement must be permissible under the Rules of Professional Conduct. Where the professional corporation’s bank account remains open to pay expenses in winding down the practice, a check for the judge’s share of legal fees may be made payable to the professional corporation.