ELC 2.6
                   HEARING OFFICER CONDUCT


(a) “Hearing Officer” Includes Panel Members.  In this rule,
the term “hearing officer” includes hearing panel members.

(b) Integrity of Hearing Officer System.  The integrity and
fairness of the disciplinary system requires that hearing
officers observe high standards of conduct.  To the extent
applicable, the Code of Judicial Conduct should guide
hearing officers.  The following rules have been adapted
from Canon 2 and Canon 3 of the Code of Judicial Conduct as
particularly applicable to hearing officers, and the words
“should” and “shall” have the meanings ascribed to them in
those rules.

(c) Hearing Officer’s Duty To Avoid Impropriety and the
Appearance of Impropriety.  Hearing officers should respect
and comply with the law and act at all times in a manner
that promotes public confidence in the integrity and
impartiality of the disciplinary system.  Hearing officers
should not allow family, social, or other relationships to
influence their conduct or judgment.  Hearing officers
should not lend the prestige of the hearing officer position
to advance the private interests of the hearing officer or
others; nor should hearing officers convey or permit others
to convey the impression that they are in a special position
to influence them.  Hearing officers should not be members
of any organization practicing discrimination prohibited by
law.

(d) Conduct of Those on Hearing Officer List.  A person on
the hearing officer list should not:

  (1)    testify voluntarily as a character witness in a
     disciplinary proceeding;

  (2)    serve as an expert witness related to the
     professional conduct of lawyers in any proceeding; or

  (3)    serve as special disciplinary counsel, adjunct
     investigative counsel, or respondent’s counsel.

(e) Performing Duties Impartially and Diligently.  When
acting as a hearing officer, the following standards apply:

  (1)  Adjudicative Responsibilities.

  (2)

     (A)Hearing officers should be faithful to the law and
        maintain professional competence in it.  Hearing
        officers should be unswayed by partisan interests,
        public clamor, or fear of criticism.

     (B)Hearing officers should maintain order and decorum
        in proceedings before them.

     (C)Hearing officers should be patient, dignified, and
        courteous to parties, witnesses, lawyers, and
        others with whom hearing officers deal in their
        official capacity, and should require similar
        conduct of lawyers, and of the staff, and others
        subject to their direction and control.

     (D)Hearing officers should accord to every person who
        is legally interested in a proceeding, or that
        person’s lawyer, full right to be heard according
        to law, and, except as authorized by law, neither
        initiate nor consider ex parte or other
        communications concerning a pending or impending
        proceeding.  Hearing officers, however, may obtain
        the advice of a disinterested expert on the law
        applicable to a proceeding before them, by amicus
        curiae only, if they afford the parties reasonable
        opportunity to respond.

     (E)Hearing officers shall perform their duties without
        bias or prejudice.

     (F)Hearing officers should dispose promptly of
        assigned matters.

     (G)Hearing officers shall not, while a proceeding is
        pending or impending, make any public comment that
        might reasonably be expected to affect its outcome
        or impair its fairness or make any nonpublic
        comment that might substantially interfere with a
        fair hearing.  The hearing officer shall require
        similar abstention on the part of personnel subject
        to the hearing officer’s direction and control.
        This section does not prohibit hearing officers
        from making public statements in the course of
        their official duties or from explaining for public
        information the procedures of the discipline
        system.

  (2) Administrative Responsibilities.

     (A)  Hearing officers should diligently discharge their
        administrative responsibilities.

     (B)  Hearing officers should require their staff and others
        subject to their direction and control to observe the
        standards of fidelity and diligence that apply to them.

  (3)    Disciplinary Responsibilities.

     (A)  Hearing officers having actual knowledge that another
        hearing officer has committed a violation of these rules
        should take appropriate action.  Hearing officers having
        actual knowledge that another hearing officer has committed
        a violation of these rules that raises a substantial
        question as to the other hearing officer’s fitness for
        office should take or initiate appropriate corrective
        action, which may include informing the appropriate
        authority.

     (B)  Hearing officers having actual knowledge that a lawyer
        has committed a violation of the Rules of Professional
        Conduct or Rules for Enforcement of Lawyer Conduct should
        take appropriate action.  Hearing officers having actual
        knowledge that a lawyer has committed a violation of the
        Rules of Professional Conduct or Rules for Enforcement of
        Lawyer Conduct that raises a substantial question as to the
        lawyer’s fitness as a lawyer should take or initiate
        appropriate corrective action, which may include informing
        the appropriate authority.

  (4)  Disqualification.

     (A)  Hearing officers should disqualify themselves in a
        proceeding in which their impartiality might reasonably be
        questioned, including but not limited to instances in which:

        (i)  the hearing officer has a personal bias or prejudice
            concerning a party, or personal knowledge of disputed
            evidentiary facts concerning the proceeding;

        (ii) the hearing officer previously served as a lawyer or
            was a material witness in the matter in controversy, or a
            lawyer with whom the hearing officer previously practiced
            law served during such association as a lawyer concerning
            the matter, or such lawyer has been a material witness
            concerning it;

        (iii)     the hearing officer knows that, individually or as
            a fiduciary, the hearing officer or the hearing officer’s
            spouse or member of the hearing officer’s family residing in
            the hearing officer’s household, has an economic interest in
            the subject matter in controversy or in a party to the
            proceeding, or is an officer, director or trustee of a party
            or has any other interest that could be substantially
            affected by the outcome of the proceeding, unless there is a
            remittal of disqualification;

        (iv) the hearing officer or the hearing officer's spouse or
            member of the hearing officer's family residing in the
            hearing officer's household, or the spouse of such a person:

            (a)  is a party to the proceeding, or an
                 officer, director, or trustee of a party;

            (b)  is acting as a lawyer in the proceeding;

            (c)  is to the hearing officer's knowledge
                 likely to be a material witness in the
                 proceeding.

     (B)  Hearing officers should inform themselves about their
        personal and fiduciary economic interests, and make a
        reasonable effort to inform themselves about the personal
        economic interests of their spouse and minor children
        residing in their household.

  (5)  Remittal of Disqualification.  A hearing officer
     disqualified by the terms of subsections (e)(4)(A)(iii) or
     (iv) may, instead of withdrawing from the proceeding,
     disclose on the record the basis of the disqualification.
     If, based on such disclosure, the parties and lawyers,
     independently of the hearing officer's participation, all
     agree in writing or on the record that the hearing officer's
     relationship is immaterial or that the hearing officer's
     economic interest is de minimis, the hearing officer is no
     longer disqualified and may participate in the proceeding.
     When a party is not immediately available, the hearing
     officer may proceed on the assurance of the lawyer that the
     party's consent will be subsequently given.


[Adopted effective October 1, 2002.]