Seton Hall Law Receives $1 Million For Endowed Professorship From Rita And Kevin Marino

 

Monday, February 7, 2022
By Ruth A Zamoyta and Michael Ricciardelli

Seton Hall University's Chair of the Board of Regents, Kevin H. Marino, Esq. '84, announced last month that he and his wife, Rita Marino, M.A.E. '94, are donating $1 million to establish an endowed professorship at Seton Hall University School of Law. The professor occupying the endowed chair will be known as the Marino Tortorella & Boyle Professor of Law, named for Marino's law firm. His partners, John D. Tortorella, Esq. '99, and John A. Boyle, Esq. '00, are both distinguished Seton Hall Law alumni.

"We all recall faculty who gave us the inspiration, skills and encouragement to reach beyond our perceived limits," noted University President Joseph E. Nyre, Ph.D. "Chairman and Mrs. Marino recognize the central role our professors play in the lives of our students and have invested in academic excellence through perpetual support for our faculty. Such philanthropic support is vital to our future, and I am very grateful for their generosity."

Marino, Tortorella & Boyle is one of the most well respected litigation boutiques in the country. Marino is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and he and his partners, John Tortorella and John Boyle, are honored publicly each year for their distinguished work in the areas of white collar criminal defense and appellate, commercial and bet-the-company litigation. Marino earned his law degree cum laude from Seton Hall in 1984 and served as Editor-in-Chief of its Law Review. He has been engaged with Seton Hall throughout his career. He has taught criminal procedure, professional responsibility, trial advocacy and legal writing as an adjunct professor at the Law School, has published in its Law Review, has served on its Board of Visitors since its inception, and has been a member of the University's Board of Regents, which he now chairs, for the past six years. In 2010 the Law School honored Marino with its Distinguished Graduate Award and in 2019 Cardinal Joseph Tobin conferred upon him the St. Thomas More Medal at the Law School's annual Red Mass.

"When Seton Hall Law opened its doors to me in 1981, it ignited my passion for this noble profession and the people it serves and blessed me with a professional life that has thrilled and fulfilled me for the past four decades," said Marino. "Over the years, our great law school has attracted some of the finest law professors in the country and turned out some of the best lawyers in the land. Endowed professorships, of which the Law School has precious few, are critical to its continued health and vitality. Our hope in endowing the MTB chair is that the many distinguished New Jersey firms in which Seton Hall lawyers play such critical roles—and that includes all of the best known and most well-respected firms in the state—will follow our lead and endow law professorships in their own names."

Seton Hall Law opened its doors 70 years ago with an entering class of only 72 students. Now with a student body of over 750 and a stunning building in downtown Newark, NJ, the School is nationally ranked with a faculty of world-class scholars and a reputation for shepherding hard-working students—many of them first-generation law students—through law school, past the bar exam and into successful professional practice. Decades of faculty and deans have worked hard to make Seton Hall Law a premier institution. Establishing endowed professorships is critical to its vision of perpetual excellence.

"Most important is that our students are the ultimate beneficiaries of this generous gift, which enables us to honor and retain the caliber of faculty who inspire them to pursue careers of impact," noted Boozang. "Through his ongoing involvement with the Law School, Kevin knows our faculty, and has a tremendous appreciation for their commitment to produce graduates dedicated to the profession and to inspiring positive change. He also knows the most difficult part of this momentous occasion is selecting one professor among so many worthy colleagues to be the inaugural holder of this endowed position."

"Endowed faculty positions are established to ensure support for an esteemed teaching scholar in perpetuity," noted University Provost Katia Passerini, Ph.D. "They are a marker of the intellectual and academic excellence of an institution, and have the exponential effect of strengthening programing, attracting high-quality students and producing successful and more engaged alumni."

Seton Hall Law invites alumni, parents and friends interested in supporting endowed faculty positions or in learning more about Seton Hall Law's strategic priorities to contact [email protected], 973-642-8711.

About Marino, Tortorella, & Boyle, P.C.

Marino, Tortorella & Boyle, P.C., a seven-lawyer litigation boutique considered by many to be the preeminent such firm in the New York metropolitan area, was founded by Kevin H. Marino in 1996. All of its lawyers are former federal law clerks with years of experience in prestigious national law firms. The firm is best known for the extraordinary results it has achieved, for both corporations and individuals, in a broad range of complex commercial litigation and regulatory matters as well as grand-jury investigations and criminal prosecutions. The firm also advises corporations, law firms and senior executives on strategic business decisions. Each member of the MTB team is intimately involved in each of the firm’s cases.

About Seton Hall Law

Founded in 1951 and located in Newark, Seton Hall University School of Law is New Jersey's only private law school and a leading Catholic law school in the New York metropolitan area. Seton Hall Law is dedicated to preparing students for the multiplicity of pathways open to professionals with a legal education in a world transformed by technology. The Law School also offers a robust selection of online and live compliance programs in privacy, cybersecurity, financial services, health & life sciences, sports and gaming for law and non-JD graduate students, as well as midcareer professionals.