🎙Episode #025: Robert Tembeckjian (Chief Judicial Ethics Officer for the State of New York)
👋🏻 Greetings from Washington, D.C. to all 416 of you on the podcast e-mail list!
Thank you.
Knowing absolutely nothing about podcasting or whether my idea would work, I set out at the beginning of 2021 with a lofty goal of publishing 50 episodes of the How I Lawyer Podcast. I pleased to report that with one day left in the first half of the year, this e-mail is here to deliver episode number 25 (not to mention more than 20,000 total downloads 🤯). Thanks to all of you for listening to the podcast and spreading the word. I am so excited about the next 25 episodes to come and beyond!
One more thing. I have had several people tell me (or even apologize) that they are “behind.” But in reality there is no such thing. This podcast is about sharing stories of lawyers on a weekly basis that have evergreen value long after their publication date. More than that, some episodes will suit your fancy or your interest. Some will not. Although I hope you’ll enjoy listening to all of them, please don’t feel like you can’t dive into a particular episode that interests you even if it does not happen to fall in my publication order. Seriously, just thank you for listening to the episodes that interest you and for sharing your thoughts, ideas, and suggestions!
With that out of the way, in today’s episode I speak with Robert Tembeckjian, the Administrator and Counsel at the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct. The Commission is the independent state agency responsible for reviewing complaints of ethical misconduct against the more than 3,000 judges and justices in the New York Unified Court System. As the Chief Judicial Ethics Enforcement Officer in New York, he runs the day-to-day operations for the commission and leads a team of more than 40 based in New York City, Albany and Rochester. He is also an important leader in the field of judicial ethics having worked for the Commission for more than 40 years.
In our conversation we discuss the importance of judicial ethics enforcement, the process for conducting investigations, and some of the common ethical mistakes that judges make. We also discuss the types of skills and experiences that lend themselves to effective judicial enforcement lawyers.
As always, if you have any questions or suggestions you can just respond to this e-mail. And if you liked the episode and can share the podcast with a family/friend/colleague and/or leave a review on iTunes I’d appreciate it.
See you next week,
Jonah