The Judicial Inquiry Commission has considered your request for an opinion concerning
whether under the Alabama Canons of Judicial Ethics a judge is disqualified from sitting
in proceedings involving two different law firms, one in which a lawyer-relative of the
judge is a partner, one in which a lawyer-relative of the judge’s spouse is a partner. As
to Law Firm 1, a lawyer-relative of the judge’s spouse is a partner. Except upon a very
limited basis, this lawyer has no pecuniary interest in cases handled by his partners
although one of his partners has a pecuniary interest in most of the lawyer-relative’s
cases. In Law Firm 2, the judge’s lawyer-relative is a partner. In that law firm all of the
partners share in all of the profits of the firm. Both lawyer-relatives fall within the fourth
degree of relationship.