NYSBA Committee on Professional Ethics – Conflict of Interest: Ethics Opinion 1064

Daily Record Staff//September 29, 2015//

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NYSBA Committee on Professional Ethics

Former Family Court Judge

Ethics Opinion 1064

Background: The inquiring attorney is a retired Family Court judge and acting Supreme Court justice who is now in private practice. A client has asked the inquirer to undertake representation in a permanent neglect action involving the client’s two children. This client made one appearance before the inquirer in a neglect case to years prior. This case involved one of the two children in the new neglect action. The inquirer issued one consent order where the parties stipulated to put the child in foster care.

Opinion: The committee concluded that a lawyer who is a former family court judge is prohibited from privately representing a client in a permanent neglect action when the same client appeared before the judge in a previous neglect action and the judge issued an order to put the subject child in foster care. This conflict is not imputed to other lawyers in the inquirer’s firm.

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