Legal News

9th Circuit judge to chair national judges' Codes of Conduct Committee

By Jason Siegel

Judge M. Margaret McKeown of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has been named chairwoman of the national Codes of Conduct Committee for the Judicial Conference of the United States, the policy-making body of the federal courts.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. appointed McKeown to succeed U.S. District Judge Gordon J. Quist of the Western District of Michigan, who ends his three-year term.

The Codes of Conduct Committee does not participate in disciplinary actions involving judges, but offers ethics advice, training and other information to judges and judiciary branch employees, particularly related to gifts, honorariums and outside employment under the Ethics Reform Act of 1989.

The Committee on Judicial Conduct and Disability oversees discipline.

McKeown, 57, a San Diego-based appellate judge, has been a member of the 9th Circuit for a decade. President Bill Clinton appointed McKeown, who joined the court in 1998.

She has served on the conduct committee since 2001. McKeown came from Seattle-based Perkins Coie, where she was a partner between 1975 and 1998 in Seattle and Washington.

Over the past year, the committee has been reviewing proposed revisions to the Code of Conduct for federal judges. This is the first major revision since 1992 and is in response to changes adopted by the American Bar Association in 2007, amending the ABA Model Code of Judicial Conduct.

Quist said recently that the ABA model is a more detailed regulatory approach, while the federal canons contain 'guiding principles,' by which judges should abide.

"We try to get the whole judiciary to adhere to and aspire to achieve these principles, recognizing that there are vast areas of judgment," Quist said in a newsletter to the federal judiciary. "The ethical principles can be complex in their application, and we cannot foretell and give advice regarding the ethics of every possible situation that judges might confront in the future," he said.

-- Pamela A. MacLean

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on July 16, 2008 (boomark / email).