Bernie Edelman
Bernard "Bernie" Edelman, a well-known defense lawyer here for 30 years, died Tuesday (March 18, 2008) of natural causes at his home in Sunset Hills, his family said. He was 63. After stints as an assistant prosecuting attorney and as a public defender in St. Louis County, he entered private practice in the mid-1970s, handling criminal and traffic cases. From 2000 until his death, Mr. Edelman was a partner with his son, Steven Edelman, in a criminal defense practice in Clayton. Mr. Edelman was president of the Missouri Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers in the early 1990s and served on its board. In 2005 Mr. Edelman won the Charles M. Shaw award for excellency in trial advocacy. Mr. Edelman was reared in University City and served in the Army and Army Reserves in the 1960s. He got his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Missouri. In addition to his son, survivors include a daughter, Susan Edelman of St. Louis; two brothers, Eugene Edelman of Birmingham, Ala., and Edward Edelman of San Francisco; a stepson, John Page of St. Louis; a stepdaughter, Nicole Hatfield of St. Louis; and three stepgrandchildren. [published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on March 22, 2008]