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: On these facts, a judge who is deciding a disqualification application as a matter of law has no additional ethical obligations under the Rules. (1) The fact that the judge’s first-degree relative is employed by a non-party real estate company that does business with one party in the litigation does not require disqualification, where neither the judge’s relative nor the relative’s employer has any interests that could be substantially affected by the proceeding. (2) The judge has full discretion to determine whether or not the judge has received information indicating a substantial likelihood that an attorney has committed a substantial violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct and, if so, what action is appropriate.