Norman Siegel | |
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 Norm Siegel speaking at City Hall New York City, 2008 |
Norman Siegel is the former executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), New York's leading civil rights organization, under the umbrella of the nationwide American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), as well as a former candidate for Public Advocate in New York City and a noted civil rights attorney. [1] [2]
Siegel was born on November 21, 1943, in Brooklyn, New York, to Benjamin and Sydelle Siegel. He has three siblings. After graduating from New Utrecht High School, Siegel attended Brooklyn College and NYU Law School with Rudy Giuliani, who later became mayor of New York City and NYCLU's frequent courtroom opponent.
Siegel served as Field Director of NYCLU from 1973 to 1976, and then as its Executive Director from 1985 to 2000. [3] Early in his legal career, he also worked for MFY Legal Services and for the Youth Citizenship Fund. [4]
Since ending his work at the NYCLU, Siegel has entered private practice and has represented various activist groups including RodStarz and G1 of Rebel Diaz, Critical Mass, residents fighting the expansion of Columbia University and families against the Rudy Giuliani's 2008 campaign for President of the United States. He has also frequently written op-ed columns at major New York City newspapers, such as the New York Times , Newsday , the New York Daily News , and the Amsterdam News . Siegel has taught a class at New Utrecht High School in Brooklyn, New York and has served on the boards of many foundations.
In 2001, Siegel ran for New York City Public Advocate and lost to Betsy Gotbaum in a runoff. In 2005, he ran again, but was likewise unsuccessful. [5] He was again a candidate in the 2009 election, losing in the Democratic primary to Bill de Blasio. In 2010, Siegel negotiated a settlement with New York City, ensuring that online journalists would receive access to official press credentials.
In 2012, Siegel, along with colleagues Herbert Teitelbaum, Saralee Evans and Emily Jane Goodman, formed a new law firm, Siegel Teitelbaum & Evans, LLP. The firm handles a wide variety of legal issues. [6]
In 2014, Siegel was quoted in the New York Times as saying that his law firm would monitor the cab company SheTaxis for gender discrimination and, if asked, consider filing a claim against them. The company allows women customers to request women cab drivers; parties must include a woman to request specifically a female driver. A customer is quoted in the article as saying she uses the cab service in order to avoid riding with "intimidating" male drivers, particularly late at night. [7] It is reported that Siegel had previously supported legal opposition to women-only gyms. [8] Such gyms are increasingly frequented by women who wish to exercise without fear of sexual harassment. [9]
In 2015 Siegel joined YAFFED in bringing a lawsuit against 40 yeshivas, private Jewish schools, for inadequate secular studies. [10]
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit human rights organization founded in 1920. The organization strives "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." The ACLU works through litigation and lobbying and has more than 1,800,000 members as of July 2018, with an annual budget over $300 million. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The ACLU provides legal assistance in cases where it considers civil liberties at risk. Legal support from the ACLU can take the form of direct legal representation or preparation of amicus curiae briefs expressing legal arguments when another law firm is already providing representation.
Rudolph William Louis Giuliani is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 107th mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He previously served as the United States Associate Attorney General from 1981 to 1983 and the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1983 to 1989.
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Shira Ann Scheindlin is an American attorney and jurist who served as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. She is currently of counsel at Boies Schiller Flexner LLP.
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Regina S. Peruggi is an American educator, who was the President of Kingsborough Community College from 2005 to 2014, the first woman to hold that position in the college's 40-year history. Prior to that, she was president of Marymount Manhattan College and led the Central Park Conservancy. For 14 years, she was married to her second cousin, Rudy Giuliani.
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The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) is a civil rights organization in the United States. Founded in November 1951 as the New York affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, it is a not-for-profit, nonpartisan organization with nearly 50,000 members across New York State.
Rudy Giuliani served as the 107th Mayor of New York City from January 1, 1994 until December 31, 2001.
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Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP, founded in 1919, is a law firm headquartered in New York City.
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Deborah N. Archer is an American civil rights lawyer and law professor. She is the Jacob K. Javits Professor at New York University and professor of clinical law at New York University School of Law. She also directs the Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law and the Civil Rights Clinic at NYU School of Law. In January 2021, she was elected president of the American Civil Liberties Union, becoming the first African American to hold the position in the organization’s history.
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