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.
Digest: Where a law firm’s managing partner is the sibling of a New York State judge, a Surrogate’s Court judge in a county specified in Section 36.1(a)(11) may not appoint any attorney of the law firm to serve as the Public Administrator, nor may the Surrogate appoint the law firm as counsel to the Public Administrator. The Surrogate may nonetheless appoint eligible members of the law firm who are on the Part 36 list to serve in other fiduciary positions except as Public Administrator and counsel to the Public Administrator.
