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 in Albany County, and the Honorable Lillian Wan, an associate justice of the appellate division, second department.

Digest: Provided the judge is satisfied they can be fair and impartial, the judge may preside in a case where (1) the plaintiff is an attorney who frequently appears before the judge and was previously co-counsel with the judge’s sibling on several discrete cases and (2) plaintiff’s counsel rents office space in the same office as the judge’s sibling and also is an elected county legislator representing the district where the judge resides.