Richard W. Long.

Pennsylvania Judicial Conduct Board Chief Counsel Richard Long says he foresees no significant changes in the way the state's judicial watchdog operates under his leadership.

Long took over the post in late December when the board's previous chief counsel, Robert Graci, retired. Since then, Long said much of his time so far has been spent learning the ropes.

He likened this experience to his 2005 deployment to Iraq as an Army Reserve Judge Advocate General officer. There's little you can do to prepare, he said, adding, “You just have to wait 'til you get there.”

But Long said that, by now, he's used to on-the-job training. “I realized it would be a lot of learning on the fly.” He also noted that his transition was eased by guidance from Graci.

Long's last position was head of the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association. Prior to that he worked for the Cleveland Browns NFL team and as a prosecutor in Dauphin County. Long was drawn to the chief counsel position because of its prosecutorial element, and because it gives him the chances to be directly involved in cases again.

“While I enjoyed my time at the DA's association, I was always one step removed. We did not have cases of our own,” he said. “I missed being more directly involved.”

The board is staffed by four investigators, six attorneys and four support personnel. Chief counsel before Long have often spoken of the scarcity of manpower and resources they have to police 67 counties' worth of judges. Long is no exception.

He maintains that resources are being used wisely, however. To make the most of what the board has, he said the priority is to identify which complaints are frivolous and which are legitimate as early as possible, something Long said his prosecutorial experience helps him do.  He added that his staff does a good job of vetting potential cases.

In addition to slim resources, Long has to contend with Pennsylvania's—and notably, Philadelphia's—historic vulnerability to judicial misconduct.

While Long was wary of pointing fingers at any particular jurisdiction, the Harrisburg native did offer some analysis of the volume of complaints coming from Philadelphia.

“It's by far the largest county in the commonwealth; just by volume you're going to get a lot of activity in Philadelphia,” he said. “It's a big, brash city so you're going to have very strongly held opinions, whether you're a litigant or a judge.”

As far as institutional improvements are concerned, Long said he hasn't yet identified any areas in need of tweaking, though he is open to periodic re-examination.

“If things are working well, I'm not one to come in and say, 'We're going to do it this way because I say so,'” Long said.

All in all, Long said the board's mission is to keep on doing what it's been doing.

Mostly, “to continue to have the courage to make the difficult choices to do the right things for the right reasons, whether it's making a finding where there's no misconduct—even if there's a perception in the media or in the public to the contrary,” Long said. “And also to have the courage to say that when someone does something wrong, they need to be held accountable.”