Norman Siegel grew up in Brooklyn and was a Dodgers fan in his youth. Since graduating from the New Utrecht High School, Brooklyn College and New York University Law School, Mr. Siegel has spent his lifetime as a civil liberties and civil rights advocate, and since 2001, in private practice.
After finishing law school in 1968, Mr. Siegel joined the Southern Justice and Voter Law Project of the American Civil Liberties Union Southern Regional Office. In 1972, he became Executive Director of the Youth Citizenship Fund Inc., a national, non-profit, youth-education organization that sought to empower the powerless in America. Mr. Siegel then joined the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) as its Field Director in 1973 and spearheaded campaigns for the New York State Equal Rights Amendment. In 1978, Mr. Siegel became Project Director for MFY Legal Services, Inc., which provides assistance to poor people on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, Chinatown, Little Italy, East Harlem and West Side. From 1985-2001, he was the Executive Director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
Beginning in 2002 as a single practitioner, and later in 2011 as a founding partner in the law firm Siegel Teitelbaum and Evans, LLP, Norman continued to practice civil rights and civil liberties law. He has advocated for and represented families who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001 in their successful quest to obtain the public record of materials, including 911 emergency tapes, arguing the case in the New York Court of Appeals. Norman was co-counsel in the defense of Kacie Hickox, known as the “Ebola Nurse” who was quarantined by the States of New Jersey and Maine. Norman was co-counsel successfully challenging the 1986 wrongful conviction of Willie Stuckey, Jr. and was part of the defense team that successfully defended Nick Hillary on the charge of murder in St. Lawrence County, New York.
Mr. Siegel lives in Manhattan with his wife, Saralee Evans. He has authored numerous op-eds in the city’s major papers: The New York Times, Newsday, The Daily News and the Amsterdam News. A member of the board of the Jackie Robinson Foundation (JRF) since 1979, with a hiatus from January 2018 and October 2020, he served as treasurer of JRF from 1986 to 2008 and is the third-longest serving director.
