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: (1) A judge who was formerly a supervisory-level attorney at the Legal Aid Society: (a) is permanently disqualified in cases in which the judge participated in any way as an attorney, whether in a personal or supervisory capacity and (b) is disqualified, subject to remittal, from presiding over matters involving former clients for a period of two years, commencing from the end date of the judge’s employment with Legal Aid.