Judicial Conduct Canon 3: Conducting personal and extrajudicial activities to minimize the risk of conflict with judicial obligations

When it applies

This comes up whenever a judge wants to serve on a nonprofit board, give speeches, write law review articles, manage investments, or engage in fundraising, and it is tested on the MPRE through fact patterns asking whether a specific extrajudicial activity crosses the line into impropriety or conflict.

What the rule requires

• A judge must conduct extrajudicial activities so they do not interfere with judicial duties or the dignity of the office.
• A judge may engage in activities concerning the law, the legal system, or the administration of justice, such as speaking, writing, and teaching, so long as impartiality is not compromised.
• A judge may participate in civic, charitable, fraternal, or educational organizations, but generally may not personally solicit funds except in limited circumstances (soliciting only from members of the judge's family or from judges over whom the judge has no supervisory or appellate authority) and may not serve as an officer, director, trustee, or nonlegal advisor if the organization is likely to be engaged in proceedings that would ordinarily come before the judge or frequently engaged in adversary proceedings in the judge's court or courts under its appellate jurisdiction.
• A judge must avoid financial, business, and fiduciary activities that would require frequent disqualification, exploit the judicial position, or involve the judge in frequent transactions with lawyers likely to appear before the judge.
• A judge must report compensation received for permitted extrajudicial activities and comply with any applicable limits on outside income or gifts.
• A judge generally may not practice law while serving as a judge, with narrow exceptions such as acting pro se, or, without compensation, giving legal advice to and drafting or reviewing documents for family members; a judge may not serve as a family member's lawyer in any adjudicative proceeding.

Exceptions

• A judge may give uncompensated legal advice to family members without violating the prohibition on practicing law.
• A judge may serve as a fiduciary (executor, trustee, guardian) for family members' estates under limited conditions.
• A judge may accept appointment to a governmental committee, board, or commission only if it concerns the law, the legal system, or the administration of justice; by contrast, a judge may participate in nonprofit educational, cultural, religious, charitable, fraternal, or civic organizations even if they are not law-related, subject to the Canon's other limits.

How the MPRE tests Judicial Conduct Canon 3

• Students forget that fundraising involvement is the key trigger: a judge can belong to a charitable board but cannot personally solicit funds from most sources.
• Questions often disguise a Canon 3 issue as a Canon 2 impartiality issue; the key is whether the conduct is extrajudicial (outside official duties) rather than judicial conduct itself.
• MPRE questions test whether the organization is 'likely to be engaged in proceedings' before the judge, which would bar service as an officer, director, trustee, or nonlegal advisor even if the activity is otherwise civic in nature (mere membership is not barred on this ground).
• Students conflate permissible law-related teaching/writing with impermissible practicing law; a judge can write a law review article but cannot represent a client.