Since the New York State Assembly announced that the firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell will lead the impeachment investigation into Governor Andrew Cuomo, there have been allegations of conflict of interest surrounding the firm’s relationship with the governor.

As NY1's Zack Fink has reported, former longtime partner Dennis Glazer is married to Janet DiFiore, the Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals. DiFiore was appointed to the court by Cuomo. Glazer was appointed to the state’s casino siting board by Cuomo as well.

But according to three legal ethicists contacted by The New York Law Journal, the firm’s relationship with Glazer, which ended over 10 years ago, doesn’t rise to a conflict of interest.

At least one member of the Assembly Judiciary Committee feels the allegations surrounding the Assembly’s impeachment investigation are unwarranted.

“I’m absolutely proud of this investigation,” Assemblyman Kenneth Zebrowski (D-Rockland County) told Capital Tonight. “This investigation is honoring those folks who have come forward.”

When asked how the Assembly came to choose the firm Davis Polk & Wardwell, Zebrowski said that the Judiciary Chairman Charles Lavine did the due diligence.

“Chair Lavine went through a process where he sought out and interviewed various firms and attempted to find one that had the expertise and the knowledge necessary, the infrastructure possible to carry out this type of investigation. He also wanted to make sure that he had a firm that didn’t have a connection to politics,” Zebrowski said.

When asked why the Assembly couldn’t hire another firm, one without any ties, no matter how tenuous to the governor, Zebrowski questioned the premise of the question.

“I’m not sure this is a tie to the governor,” he said. “Number one, to make this connection you have to be sort of disparaging the chief judge and suggesting that her connection, as being appointed by the governor, somehow taints her husband, who then taints the firm that he’s been retired from for ten years. I don’t think you can draw that connection.”

Zebrowski went on to say that the three attorneys hired who were introduced earlier Tuesday at a Judiciary Committee meeting, would never throw away their reputations and careers in order to protect the governor.

“I just don’t think that passes the smell test,” he said.