Public Trust: Judicial Conduct Committee’s role in Enforcing the Code of Judicial Conduct

Judicial Conduct: Accountability, Due Process, and Public Trust

Join us on October 29 for Judicial Conduct: Accountability, Due Process, and Public Trust.  A panel of attorneys and judges will discuss the Judicial Conduct Committee’s role in enforcing the Code of Judicial Conduct. This conference is intended to bring together members of the public, judges, attorneys, legislators, journalists, and other interested professionals for an informed discussion of judicial ethics, disciplinary procedures,  public accountability,  and the role of the media in reporting matters involving the judiciary.

 This conference will not discuss specific cases.  It is an opportunity to learn about the little-understood topic of the Code of Judicial Conduct and its enforcement in New Hampshire.

This course is eligible for 75 minutes of CLE ethics credit

When: October 29,  5:30 p.m.

Where: The UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law, 2 White Street, Concord, NH, Room 282

Registration is required.  Please register hereby October 28.

This conference is sponsored by the Warren B. Rudman Center for Justice, Leadership & Public Service.

Attorney Andrew Cotrupi

Attorney Cotrupi is primarily a criminal defense lawyer who represents clients at every court level in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and the federal courts. At the direction of the New Hampshire Judicial Conduct Committee, he assists in the investigation and potential prosecution of judicial misconduct. He considers it an honor to support this important work and describes the committee as tireless in its efforts to uphold the integrity of the judiciary and protect the public. He also serves on the Hearings Committee of the New Hampshire attorney discipline system.
A cum laude graduate of the New England School of Law (1991), he began as an intern law clerk for the Honorable Martin Loughlin in the U.S. District Court in Concord, followed by a clerkship with the New Hampshire Superior Court. He then spent five years as a managing attorney at the New Hampshire Public Defender’s Office before entering private practice in 1997. He has handled investigations and jury trials for first-degree murder, negligent homicide, and related serious felonies in almost all of the state’s counties.

The Hon. N. William Delker

Judge N. William Delker is an associate justice of the New Hampshire Superior Court. He was appointed in August 2011. Judge Delker is a member of the Judicial Conduct Committee in his seventh year on the committee.  He is also a member of the New Hampshire Lawyers Assistance Program Board of Trustees, the NHBA Leadership Academy, the Superior Court Law Clerk Committee, and a former, three-term member of the New Hampshire Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Rules. In addition to his judicial responsibilities, Judge Delker is an adjunct professor at UNH Law School. Before he joined the bench, Judge Delker was a Senior Assistant Attorney General at the New Hampshire Department of Justice, an associate in private practice, and a law clerk for New Hampshire Supreme Court Justice Sherman Horton. He earned his JD, summa cum laude, from American University’s Washington College of Law and his undergraduate degree, summa cum laude, from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

The Hon. Jennifer Lemire

Hon. Jennifer A. Lemire is the Presiding Judge of the NH Circuit Family Division Complex Case Docket and has been a member of the Judicial Conduct Committee since 2021.  She was appointed as a Circuit Court judge in 2012, following her appointment as Marital Master in January of 2010.  Judge Lemire provides Family Division training to new judges.  Before joining the bench, she was a trial lawyer and shareholder with Wiggin & Nourie, P.A. with which her law firm, Watson & Lemire, P.A. merged in 2005, and practiced law in courts throughout New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts.  She served on the boards of the NH Certified Marital Mediators, NH Association for Justice, NH Women’s Bar Association, Rockingham County Bar Association, ProPortsmouth, Inc., Exeter Chamber Area of Commerce, Exeter Area Charitable Foundation, Ballet New England, and Kingston Children’s Center.  In 2004, she was awarded a Special Recognition Award from the NH Association for Justice and received a Governor’s Citation for representing family members of September 11^th victims as a Lawyer Volunteer for Trial Lawyers Care, Inc., the largest pro bono legal services program in history. 

Attorney Robert Mittelholzer

Bob Mittelholzer is the Executive Secretary and General Counsel to the State of New Hampshire’s Judicial Conduct Committee where he has served in this capacity since June of 2008.  Prior to assuming this position, Mr. Mittelholzer had been a trial lawyer headquartered in New Hampshire and practicing throughout New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts.  Mr. Mittelholzer received his undergraduate degree from the College of the Holy Cross, his master’s degree from New York University and his Juris Doctorate from the University of New Hampshire’s Franklin Pierce School of Law. Mr. Mittelholzer has been an active member of the National Center for State Courts’ Center for Judicial Ethics (NCSC) and the Association of Judicial Disciplinary Counsel (AJDC) since 2008.

Attorney Philip Waystack

Philip R. Waystack is a trial lawyer from the North Country. He has been a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers since 2004. He has served as Committee Counsel and Hearing Counsel for the Judicial Conduct Committee since 2016. Phil has served as President of the New Hampshire Bar Association. He is a Fellow in the New Hampshire Bar Foundation.  He served as Co-Chair of Governor Lynch’s Judicial Selection Commission for seven years. He previously served as a member of Governor Jeanne Shaheen’s Judicial Selection Commission for three years. Phil was appointed by the New Hampshire Supreme Court to serve on the Court’s Professional Conduct Committee (PCC) from 1996-2013. He served on the Board of the New Hampshire Public Defender Program for more than 15 years.  He received the Distinguished Service to the Legal Profession Award from the New Hampshire Bar Association in 2012. He was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the New Hampshire Association for Justice in 2017.  He earned his B.S. degree at Stonehill College and his J.D. degree at Suffolk University School of Law.

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