The Committee on Judicial Ethics responds to written inquiries from New York state’s approximately 3,400 judges, who serve both full- and part-time. The committee’s opinions interpret the Rules Governing Judicial Conduct (22NYCRR, Part 100) and the Code of Judicial Conduct. The committee, comprised of 26 current and retired judges and headed by former Justice George D. Marlow, also answers inquiries about proper campaign conduct from candidates for elective judicial office. The New York Law Journal publishes selected recent opinions of the committee.
Digest: (1) A judge may continue to serve as trustee of a trust that benefits the judge’s first cousin; (2) A judge may be a member with his/her siblings of an LLC that will own several pieces of real estate; (3) A judge must disqualify him/herself, subject to remittal, when an attorney from the judge’s former law firm appears in the judge’s court for two years after the judge’s employment with his/her former law firm ends or until the landlord/tenant relationship between the judge and his/her former law firm ends, whichever occurs later.
