Mark ’89 and Valerie (Sheirr) ’90 Seelig met at Hofstra Law in 1987 when Mark, one year ahead, was Valerie’s Law Fellow for criminal law. They became friends, began dating, and married in 1994. They have three daughters. Mark has a thriving law practice and runs a series of real estate private equity funds. Looking back on their more than 35 years together, they are exceptionally grateful for their family, their lasting friendships, and the life they share—and Hofstra Law played an important role in all of it, inspiring them to create the Valerie and Mark Seelig Challenge.
During the first week of law school in 1986, Mark met fellow classmates, Mitchell Schuster and Thomas Friedman. Following graduation, Mark and Tom worked at Rogers & Wells (now Clifford Chance). A few years later, they started what is now Meister Seelig & Fein PLLC (MSF), where Mark serves as Chairman. Mitch joined the firm four years later and is now the administrative partner.
The firm recently celebrated its 30th anniversary and includes over 80 lawyers with offices on Park Avenue in New York City, as well as in Connecticut, New Jersey, Long Island and Los Angeles. MSF is a full-service law firm with more than ten practice areas, including corporate, litigation, real estate, intellectual property, family law, employment, estate and probate, crisis management, and criminal defense. The firm’s personnel are active within the Hofstra Law community.
When he started MSF, Mark was not certain the new practice would take off. “We were in a month-to-month rental space. I was not sure if we would be able to make a living and Valerie was pregnant with our first child,” he says. “So, my brother and I started a real estate business, Eagle Rock, to buy a house in foreclosure, fix it up and rent it. It was my Plan B if the firm did not work out.” The real estate business is named after the two local high schools Mark and his brother, Adam, attended: the East Rockaway Rocks and the Hauppauge Eagles. With Valerie helping in both businesses, MSF and Eagle Rock flourished. Today, Eagle Rock, headquartered near Hofstra, employs 300 real estate professionals and owns over $3 billion in apartment communities across 9 states. Eagle Rock is a proud client of MSF.
“It is important for us to give back,” Mark says. “At MSF, we try to bring Hofstra Law graduates into the firm; I think we have more than 10 Hofstra Law alumni, and we regularly hire interns from Hofstra Law.” Several years ago, Valerie and Mark decided to go one step further and fully endow a permanent scholarship at the Law School. That scholarship focuses on students who need help paying tuition and who also have family members in the military or law enforcement.
The endowment was set up in honor of Mark’s father, a disabled New York City police officer, and his grandfather, who spent his career in the military. “Giving is a bit selfish for us. We get tremendous joy from reading the letters applicants submit outlining their hopes and dreams, many of whom are the first in their families to receive a formal education. It’s incredible to be a part of helping to make that happen,” Mark offers.
“We hoped to motivate alumni to join in, to recognize and be thankful and appreciative for whatever good has come out of Hofstra Law in their lives.”
Having seen the success of the endowed scholarship and read letters from grantees acknowledging the importance of the tuition assistance, Mark and Valerie were determined to do more. They wanted to create a second endowed scholarship to double their efforts. But instead of only funding a second endowed scholarship, they wanted to find a way to inspire others to donate as well. They came up with the Valerie and Mark Seelig Challenge: they would donate two or more dollars for every dollar donated by others during the challenge. Their hope was to generate more interest and get people to start donating who have not donated before.
“We hoped to motivate alumni to join in, to recognize and be thankful and appreciative for whatever good has come out of Hofstra Law in their lives,” Mark says. This spring, they offered to fully fund a second endowed scholarship and donated another $100,000 with the hope of encouraging others to contribute an additional $50,000. The challenge was a success, exceeding its goal and raising $78,485 from alumni who participated. Added to the Seelig’s $100,000 contribution, the challenge raised a total of $178,485.00.
“The lessons I learned at Hofstra Law gave me the confidence to start my own firm and business.”
Valerie and Mark are thankful to be able to establish these endowed scholarships. “I was a blue-collar kid growing up on Long Island,” Mark says. “My mom was a waitress and my dad was a cop. I never knew anyone who went to college, let alone law school. My high school football coach is the one who suggested that I go to college since I had good grades. He went to Fordham and majored in history, so I did the same. In college, all of my roommates except one were going to law school. My dad thought I should get a job in the police department, but my grades were good, so I went to law school.”
Mark chose Hofstra Law in large part because he needed to live at home and to work. “Both of my parents, permanently disabled following separate accidents while in their 20’s, needed my brother and me close by,” he says. In law school, Mark worked hard and did well. He was an editor on Law Review, a teaching fellow, and gave the graduation speech for his class. “When I look back and think about what Hofstra Law did for me — I received a great education, an opportunity to launch my career; I met Valerie, my wife of over 30 years; I met Tom, the person with whom I started MSF; and I met Mitch, my best friend and partner of 30 years — it covered every single base for me.”
“The lessons I learned at Hofstra Law gave me the confidence to start my own firm and business,” he adds. “My greatest success is my marriage and kids, but MSF and Eagle Rock are close behind, and I would have none of them without Hofstra Law. Valerie and I encourage everyone to give what and when they can, whether its time or money, to help the next group reach their dreams.”
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