 In 1961, McQuillan became special counsel to the New York State Temporary Commission on Revision of the Penal Law, which oversaw the rewriting of New York State's penal and criminal procedure law.This was the first major revision of the law in over 80 years.Prior to the revision, the code was a piecemeal collection of local and statewide laws, with language and provisions going back to the 1800s.