Edward Z. Menkin: Distinguished Lawyer of the Year.

Lawyer Edward Z. Menkin was named the OCBA’s “Distinguished Lawyer of the Year” in recognition of his wit and expertise in criminal defense law.

After an earlier career as an elementary school and college English teacher, Menkin turned to a legal career, graduating from the SU College of Law in 1977.

After two years as an assistant Onondaga County district attorney, Menkin went into private practice, specializing in criminal defense, personal injurymatters and the representation of lawyers and doctors in professional disciplinary and licensing matters.

I was born and raised in the Bronx. I attended New York City public schools and am a proud graduate of DeWitt Clinton High School (Class of 1960). Immediately upon my graduation from the City College of New York in January 1965, I was hired as a permanent substitute sixth grade teacher by the New York City Board of Education. (I taught at P.S. 63 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan (3rd St. between Avenue A and First Avenue). I left in June 1965 to enter graduate school at Syracuse University to study English Literature. I was a graduate teaching assistant for 5 years and a resident advisor to a fraternity house (a most memorable experience, I can assure you)..

While a graduate student at Syracuse, I returned to my home in the Bronx in the summers of 1966, 1967, and 1968 and taught as a substitute teacher for the New York City Board of Education each June of those years.

In 1970, while completing my graduate studies for my PhD in English, I was hired as an Assistant Professor of English at the College of Health Related Professions, State University of New York, Upstate Medical Center, 750 East Adams Street, Syracuse, New York. I remained there as a full time faculty member until June, 1976 when I left to work in the Onondaga County District attorney’s Office as a law clerk in the last semester of Law School. Between August 1974 and June 1976, I was both a full time faculty member at Upstate Medical Center and a full time law student at Syracuse University.