By: Karenlyn Barone
Siegel was first appointed to the village bench in 2004, when then justice Ed Cook stepped down to serve as a trustee on the East Rockaway Village Board. With what he calls a very successful first year behind him, Siegel would like to be returned to the position.
"There is something special about sitting there (on the village justice bench), trying to be fair, sensitive and attentive to people's dignity," said the 46-year-old attorney. "There is a special pleasure I get from doing meaningful work on the other side of the bench."
The East Rockaway resident was raised in Bayside, Queens and graduated Benjamin Cardoza High School in 1976. He received a degree in psychology from State University of Albany in 1980 and a law degree from Hofstra University in 1983. Upon graduation, he worked in the Queens Assistant District Attorney's Office, assigned to the Special Victims Bureau. There, he was involved with cases involving child abuse, elder care and actually prosecuted one of the earliest cases of alleged spousal rape.
For the next 15 years, Siegel practiced what he called general law.
"It was wonderful to be a stable for families as they grew and had special legal needs," said Siegel, who handled marital estates, medicaid cases and medical malpractice.
But, in 2000, Siegel decided to concentrate solely on medical malpractice cases, which he says is the "most intellectually challenging." In 2004 he was approached by the East Rockaway Village Board to serve as village justice and he readily accepted. In that role he is responsible for arraignments, legal conferencing, the trial of violations and certain misdemeanors, quality of life offenses, construction work done out of village code conformity, and traffic infractions, both moving and parking. Siegel holds court the second and fourth Tuesdays of every month for a total of about 12 to 15 hours a month. For this, he receives a small stipend from the village.
"Every lawyer wants to do well, but it is important, not just to do well, but to do good," said Siegel. "When you spend 20 years asking that fairness and justice be visited upon your client, it's particularly gratifying to be on the other side of the bench, in a position of administering fairness."
Siegel is a board member of the Peninsula Counseling Center and Counsel to the Board of "Gift of Life," a support group for transplant patients. He is also a former counsel to the Queens Hospital Advisory Board, and adjunct professor at St. John's University in family and insurance law and a former Queens Civil Court arbitrator.
In his personal life, Siegel is married to Eileen and the proud father of three-year old daughter Allison.
"I'm not unaware that people would prefer not to be summoned to court," said Siegel, "but it's important that they leave with their dignity and a sense that they were listened to and treated fairly."
