Upcoming Programs - OATH

Upcoming Programs

Topic:

Ethical Considerations for Administrative Law Judges – An In-depth Analysis of the New York State Bar Association’s 2022 Model Code of Judicial Conduct for State Administrative Law Judges

Date:

Tuesday, September 9, 2025, 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.

Program Description:

This CLE program will review key provisions of the Model Code, including those that address fairness, impartiality, independence, and access to justice. The program will cover the history of the model code, the drafting process, and the structure of the code. There will also be a discussion on best practices for Administrative Law Judges to stay in compliance with both the spirit and the letter of the model code. Finally, there will be time at the end for a Q&A session.

Instructors:

James T. McClymonds is the Chief Administrative Law Judge for Siting, Office of Renewable Energy Siting and Electric Transmission, New York State Department of Public Service.  Judge McClymonds has held that position since April 2024.  Prior to that, Judge McClymonds served two and a half years as Chief Administrative Law Judge for the Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES) and over 18 years as Chief Administrative Law Judge for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).  Before joining DEC, Judge McClymonds served almost ten years at the New York State Court of Appeals, where he worked as a staff attorney and supervising staff attorney on the Court’s Central Staff, and later as principal law clerk to Associate Judge Howard A. Levine and, briefly, to Associate Judge Susan P. Read.  Judge McClymonds is a graduate of New York Law School, where he received J.D. magna cum laude in 1993.

In addition to other professional activities, Judge McClymonds is an Executive Committee Member-at-Large of the Environmental and Energy Law Section (EELS) of the New York State Bar Association (NYSBA).  He is also a member of the Local and State Government Law Section and is co-chair of that section’s Committee on the Administrative Law Judiciary.  In that capacity, Judge McClymonds coordinated the development of the 2022 Model Code of Judicial Conduct for State Administrative Law Judges, which was adopted by the NYSBA House of Delegates in January 2022.

Judge McClymonds is a regular presenter of Continuing Legal Education programs for State agencies and bar associations, including NYSBA.  Judge McClymonds has presented on topics such as ethics for administrative law judges, the State Administrative Procedure Act and administrative adjudicatory processes, adjudicatory proceedings before ORES and DEC, mediation and alternative dispute resolution, and civil practice before the New York State Court of Appeals.  In 2018, Judge McClymonds presented the New York Law Course on Administrative Law for the New York State Board of Law Examiners.

CLE Credits:

1.5 Ethics  (transitional/non-transitional)