NEW YORK, March 15 (UPI) -- A lawyer for a New York charity created by three firefighters got more than $500,000 in legal fees while the charity gave out just $73,000 to the needy.
William Kelly did legal work for the Bravest Fund, started by three firefighters who raised the U.S. flag over Ground Zero, the Daily News reported Monday.
That flag-raising was memorialized by photographer Tom Franklin of The Record newspaper of Hackensack, N.J.
So far, Kelly has collected $553,000 in legal fees from the Bravest Fund and a second charity set up by The Record to collect money raised by the photograph. Meanwhile, the Bravest Fund, which has collected some $1 million in contributions, has distributed a paltry $73,000.
Kelly sues anyone who uses the photograph without permission, and helps collect licensing fees and royalty payments to reprint the image.
The work has resulted in $1,969,369 raised through copyright infringement settlements and licensing fees. From that, his law firm, McCarthy & Kelly, has deducted $553,000, a legal bill split by the Bravest Fund and The Record's charity.
Kelly's response: "It costs what it costs."
