Jeffrey Ehrlich

Ehrlich represented the family of Douglas Zerby in their high-profile wrongful-death lawsuit against the Long Beach Police Department. Zerby was shot to death by officers while sitting on a friend's porch, holding a hose nozzle. On February 4, 2016, the Ninth Circuit affirmed a $6.5 million award in favor of Zerby's family.

In April 2016, Ehrlich argued Nickerson v. Stonebridge, a California Supreme Court case with "significant financial consequences" for the insurance industry. Ehrlich contends that the due process clause of the United States Constitution permits punitive damages against insurers to be increased in proportion to damages awarded after trial.

In 2016, Ehrlich will appear before the California Supreme Court to defend a $90 million class-action judgment on behalf of security guards who contend that their employers denied them legally mandated rest breaks. The justices on the Court of Appeal previously rejected Ehrlich's argument that employers may not require workers to perform any duties during rest breaks.

In November 2011, Ehrlich argued an asbestos products-liability case, O'Neil v. Crane, before the California Supreme Court. He contended that World War II-era valve and pump manufacturers knew their products contained asbestos at delivery, and therefore had a duty to warn future users who were exposed to replacement asbestos. The California Supreme Court went on to unanimously reject Ehrlich's argument, in a major national victory for the defense bar.

In 2006, Ehrlich founded The Ehrlich Law Firm. He argued Wilson v. 21st Century Insurance Co., in which the California Supreme Court limited insurance companies' ability to evade liability for bad-faith conduct by claiming their wrongful denial of coverage was the result of a "genuine dispute."

After returning to private practice, Ehrlich successfully argued in 1999 the case of UNUM Life Insurance Co. v. Ward 119 S.Ct. 1380, before the United States Supreme Court. The Court held that the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 did not bar application of a California rule forbidding insurance companies from denying untimely claims without showing that they had been prejudiced by the delayed notice. The decision garnered attention from the insurance industry because it expanded the rights of millions of Americans who obtain insurance through their employers.

In 1992, Ehrlich was hired by the Legal Division of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to work as an appellate attorney in the agency's headquarters in Washington, D.C. He spent four years representing the agency before federal appellate courts.

In 1985, he was admitted to practice law in California and joined the Los Angeles law firm of Hufstedler, Miller, Carlson & Beadsle. As a young associate at the firm, he was trained by Otto Kaus, a retired California Supreme Court justice, and Shirley Hufstedler, a retired judge for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal and the United States' first Secretary of Education. Ehrlich also worked closely with two partners at the firm, Dennis Perluss, and Laurie Zelon, who now sit as justices on the California Court of Appeal.

In 1983, Ehrlich graduated with honors from Harvard Law School. After graduating, he clerked for the Hon. Judith Nelsen Keep, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California.

Jeffrey Isaac Ehrlich (born July 10, 1959) is an American lawyer and author, known for handling landmark appeals in the United States Supreme Court and the California Supreme Court. He is co-author of the influential Thomson Reuters treatise on insurance litigation, and Editor-in-Chief of Advocate, the most widely circulated trial-bar magazine in the United States. He and his son, Clinton Ehrlich, are also known for exonerating Sgt. Raymond Lee Jennings, an Iraq War veteran who served 11 years of a life sentence for murdering teenager Michelle O'Keefe.