Topeka ? Longtime Lawrence attorney Edward Collister Jr. is the Commission on Judicial Qualifications hearing examiner that brought the complaint against Kansas Supreme Court Justice Lawton Nuss.

Collister, who works on a contract basis for the commission, has a law firm, Collister & Kampschroeder, 3311 Clinton Parkway Court.

He has declined to comment on the Nuss investigation.

Collister, 66, graduated from Kansas University in 1961 and the KU law school in 1964.

He has a broad range of legal experience. Martindale-Hubbell, a national lawyer directory, rates Collister’s legal abilities as “very high to pre-eminent.”

He has worked in the attorney general’s office under Kent Frizzel and then Vern Miller.

The Commission on Judicial Qualifications has given Nuss until June 1 to answer the allegations that he violated judicial rules by discussing the pending school finance case with two lawmakers.

The commission will then probably set a hearing date to consider the case. The hearing will be open to the public.

Last year, the Kansas Supreme Court ousted Saline County District Judge George R. Robertson for viewing Internet pornography on his office computer.

The Commission on Judicial Qualifications had recommended Robertson’s removal after Collister’s investigation of the judge.

In 2004, Collister was a member of a committee that worked in favor of retaining Judge Paula Martin, who was the target of an attempt to unseat her because of some sentences in a rape case that the Kansas Court of Appeals later said were too lenient.