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Former Justice Ehrlich remembered fondly

Raymond Ehrlich's integrity and humor are recalled at a court memorial. Retired since 1991, he died in July.

By LUCY MORGAN
Published October 11, 2005

TALLAHASSEE - Former Supreme Court Justice Raymond Ehrlich was remembered Monday for his integrity, his brain and a ribald sense of humor as current and former members of the state's highest court gathered for a memorial in a standing-room-only courtroom.

The son of Russian Jews who fled from Czarist pogroms, Ehrlich never forgot the lessons he learned from parents who came to America in search of freedom with no money, no education and no skills, recalled Chief Justice Barbara Pariente.

Ehrlich was 87 when he died in July. He practiced law for 35 years in Jacksonville before being appointed to the court by Gov. Bob Graham in 1981.

Ehrlich's appointment came just three weeks after quintuple heart bypass surgery. He retired in 1991 after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70.

Ehrlich was one of only a few justices appointed without prior service as a judge. He had made his living defending insurance companies with a silk stocking law firm in Jacksonville.

As a justice he frequently ruled against insurance companies, giving citizens more rights to sue and engineering some of the decisions that shifted the law in favor of injured people, the people he once fought as a trial lawyer.

Ehrlich frequently pushed for higher standards of integrity among lawyers and judges. Once, his was the lone dissent in a 6-1 decision to suspend a Pinellas County lawyer from practicing law for three years. "The misconduct in question clearly merits disbarment," Ehrlich explained.

Ehrlich had a unique ability to put himself in the shoes of poor defendants and police officers as well as big businesses, noted former Justice Rosemary Barkett, who now sits on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

"I marveled how he could put himself in the place of each party to a lawsuit," Barkett said. "He was a great jurist, a great man."

Former law clerk William S. Graessle of Jacksonville recalled the day he gave Florida Gator boxer shorts to Ehrlich as a birthday present, only to watch the justice model the underwear on top of his suit pants in the halls of the Supreme Court.

Former Justice Major Harding replaced Ehrlich on the court in 1991, finding Ehrlich's old desk empty except for a brochure with details on where Harding could purchase bow ties like the ones Ehrlich made famous. Harding continued the tradition.

Former Justice Ben Overton recalled Ehrlich's reputation as "the brain," a tag he earned in his college days. Overton also recalled Ehrlich's habit of referring to his law clerks and other women at the court as "little lady."

In the audience Monday were former law clerks and lawyers who worked with Ehrlich, including Jacksonville State Attorney Harry Shorestein, former House Speaker Ralph Haben and several former Florida Bar presidents.

Tallahassee lawyer Richard McFarlain recalled Ehrlich's love of bow ties: "He said you're not a real lawyer until you appear before the Supreme Court in a bow tie," McFarlain said.

--Times researcher Mary Mellstrom contributed to this report.

[Last modified October 11, 2005, 01:57:17]