Nice Perk for N.Y. School Lawyer: Lifetime Medical Coverage
Updated: A 71-year-old retired lawyer in New York had a part-time school district job during his final few years of practice that many attorneys might find appealing.
Jerome Ehrlich was not only paid a $60,000 annual salary for his part-time employment in 2005 and 2006 but is to receive lifetime medical insurance coverage after his retirement, under his contract with the Hewlett-Woodmere school district, reports Newsday. At the same time Ehrlich earned this salary, the district paid his law firm, Ehrlich, Frazer & Feldman, more than $200,000 in fees during each of these two years, the newspaper says.
Ehrlich is one of three lawyers reportedly being investigated as part of a state and federal probe of how more than 700 school districts in the state paid their legal counsel and other professionals, as discussed in another ABAJournal.com post.
However, his lawyer, John Carman of Garden City, says Ehrlich’s salary wasn’t out of line. “He was getting $60,000 to be available one day a week, which isn’t extraordinary, given what attorneys make these days,” Carman tells Newsday. And the other two law partners at Ehrlich’s firm say in a letter to school district officials that there was no double-billing, and that Ehrlich’s employment at the district started before the Ehrlich, Frazer & Feldman firm was established in 1992.
Ehrlich began working for Hewlett-Woodmere in 1971, according to the newspaper, and also was reported as working simultaneously for another school district in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Updated at 3:55 p.m., central time, to add new information about scope of overall investigation.
