Seton Hall Law receives $1 million for endowed professorship

NEWARK, NJ — Seton Hall University’s board of regents Chairperson Kevin H. Marino announced last month that he and his wife, Rita Marino, 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 and John A. Boyle, are both distinguished Seton Hall Law alumni, while Kevin and Rita Marino also both have SHU degrees.

“We all recall faculty who gave us the inspiration, skills and encouragement to reach beyond our perceived limits,” university President Joseph E. Nyre said. “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.”

Kevin 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 of the Archdiocese of Newark 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,” Marino said. “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 more than 750 and a building in downtown Newark, the school is nationally ranked with a reputation for shepherding hardworking students — many of them first-generation law students — through law school, past the bar exam and into successful professional practice. 

“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,” Dean Kathleen M. Boozang, who is also a law professor at the school, said. “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,” university Provost Katia Passerini said. “They are a marker of the intellectual and academic excellence of an institution, and have the exponential effect of strengthening programming, attracting high-quality students, and producing successful and more engaged alumni.”

  Seton Hall University