Opinion 95-42

March 9, 1995

Digest:         A full-time judge may serve on a bar association committee on the revision of the Penal Law.

Rule:            22 NYCRR 100.4(a), (c)

Opinion:

         A full-time judge asks whether it is permissible to serve on a Committee on the Revision of the Penal Law, which is a subcommittee of the Criminal Justice Section of the New York State Bar Association.

         Section 100.4(a) and (c) of the Rules of the Chief Administrator provide that judges may participate in “...activities concerning the law, the legal system, and the administration of justice. .. [and] a judge may serve as a member...of an organization...devoted to the improvement of the law, the legal system or the administration of justice.”

         Service on the committee in question falls clearly within the allowable limits of this rule.

         The judge also asks whether it is necessary to limit his/her participation in any way. Other than general conformity to the Rules of the Chief Administrator and the Code of Judicial Conduct, there are no other specific limitations which this Committee believes are necessary to address, absent a more specific question from the inquiring judge.