Gerald Stern, who for three decades set the bar for courtroom ethical standards in New York State as the first administrator of its Commission on Judicial Conduct, died Jan. 6 in a hospital in the Bronx. He was 86.

Mr. Stern led the commission from its inception in 1974 through 2003, a period in which it sacked, censured or admonished some 600 judges for offenses including corruption, conflicts of interest, favoritism, improper demeanor, and proscribed political activity. Mr. Stern’s scrutiny of judicial conduct set new standards of professionalism in courts across the nation.

He also criticized prosecutors for equating indictments with convictions, in particular Rudolph W. Giuliani when he was the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York in the 1980s.