Seymour E. Siegel, (1922-2007)

My father, Sy was a great dad and role model. He was a highly skilled attorney and, in his prime, he was one of the most well regarded trial lawyers in the state. He was a tough but ethical adversary.

He was born in the Bronx during the Great Depression. As a teenager, to earn money to help my immigrant grandparents pay the bills, he played the trumpet in various dance bands and spent his summers playing in the resorts of the Catskill Mountains.

He graduated from Evander Childs High School in the Bronx and from The College of the City of New York where he studied Economics. He served in the US Army during World War Two, in the European Theatre of Operations from 1942 to 1945, where he received two Purple Hearts.

After the war, while working a full time job, he earned his law degree from Rutgers Law School in 1950. He was admitted to the New Jersey Bar in 1952 and was admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court in 1958.

My father tried over 1,000 civil cases. He and my mother, Elaine instilled within me the values which I hold fast to today: family, honesty and hard work.