The Justice

While he coached at St. Anthony High School, Darren Erman, above, slept each night on this air mattress on the floor of his friend's New York apartment. Photo by Jennifer Szymaszek/The Associated Press.

The median salary for graduates of Northwestern Law School is $125,000. And Darren Erman, who graduated from there in 2000, was making $150,000 a year working at Latham and Watkins, one of the world's most powerful law firms, in Chicago until 2003.

Fast forward to 2006: Erman is volunteering as an assistant men's basketball coach at Brandeis.

His salary: $0.

"I think he is absolutely out of his mind," his boss, head coach Brian Meehan jokes.

In a society driven by material acquisition, Erman doesn't conform.

"I just don't have opportunities to accumulate material things," he says. "Sometimes on pay day I wish things would be different, but I love where I am. If I didn't, I would go back into law and make money."

Nevertheless, giving up law wasn't easy for him.

"It was a difficult choice since I had a comfortable life," he says. "I liked my job, but didn't love it. A large portion of your life is work, so I might as well love what I do."

But the 30-year-old native of Louisville, Ky., who also currently works as a skill-development coach for Boston Celtic forward Brian Scalabrine, had little choice in what to be passionate about growing up.

"All we have in Kentucky is basketball and horses," he says.

Erman didn't choose horses.

As an undergraduate at Emory University, Erman was a student-coach for the men's basketball team. Then, after sampling the world of corporate law, he felt unfulfilled. So he quit to become an assistant basketball coach and environmental science teacher at St. Anthony High School in Jersey City, N.J. The school is situated in a down-and-out part of the city and is constantly threatened by bankruptcy. Erman's salary was $25,000.

While coaching there, he lived on the floor of his friend's apartment in New York City, sleeping on an air mattress. Now living in Waltham, he has "upgraded" to a small studio apartment. But Erman takes his financial constraints in stride.

"I have a small apartment, but a tremendous life," he says.

Continued...

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