https://setonhall.rivals.com/
By JP Pelzman
When Kevin Marino first became a Seton Hall basketball fan almost 40 years ago, a practice facility was what you called your team’s gym when it wasn’t being used for a game.
In the current collegiate athletic facility arms race, it has a much different connotation. It also is something Marino, a 1984 Seton Hall Law School graduate and chairman of SHU’s Board of Regents, is working to help make happen.
Still, in these challenging times, the continuing specter of the coronavirus pandemic has had far-reaching effects, making it difficult to attach concrete dates to plans. Thus, Marino understandably refused to put a timetable on the construction of the planned Seton Hall basketball practice facility.
“It would be foolish to say we’ll do it by this date when things are changing every day,” Marino said in an interview with PirateCrew.com. “But I can tell you this--at the highest levels of the administration, and the board, it is absolutely understood that (a practice facility) is vitally important to the future success of our basketball program. We have architects finalizing the design and it’s a major priority for our (capital) campaign to get a practice facility.
“Seton Hall is a top-tier basketball program,” he added, “in what I think is the best college basketball conference in the country. You really do have to have a practice facility that is absolutely first-tier. Everybody recognizes how critical it is. I'd be very surprised if that does not become a reality.”
Marino, who is in his fifth year on the Board of Regents, submitted his name for the position of chairman and was approved last December, after Pat Murray stepped down after nearly a decade of service in that position.
As the owner and a still highly-involved member of the law firm of Marino, Tortorella & Boyle, P.C. in Chatham, Marino already had plenty on his plate. But his love of Seton Hall made him want to take the position, which has given Marino that much more of a chance to give back to the school that has given him so much.
“I love Seton Hall,” Marino said. “That's probably obvious. I just think, on so many levels, Seton Hall is the ideal place.
“It’s a hard-working, faith-based place,” he added. “The ideal place. To be chairman of the board is an enormous honor. I was thrilled to have that opportunity.
“My trepidation was that it would be an enormous undertaking (to be chairman) and I wondered if I would really be able to do it. Is it different? Oh, yeah.”
Still, Marino says, “It’s been a great ride so far.”
That journey began in the fall of 1981, when Marino first enrolled in Seton Hall Law School. He had graduated from Drew University in 1980 with a Bachelor’s in English and political science, while pondering his future.
“In my senior year at Drew,” Marino said, “I thought about getting a PhD in English and being a professor.”
He also applied to the law schools at Harvard, Yale and NYU, and was turned down. He then spent a “stultifying” year working in the insurance field.
As for his real choices, “I went back and forth on that and couldn’t really decide what to do,” adding that he was told becoming an English professor “is a very, very difficult field to break into.”
Thus, he went to Seton Hall Law School.
“From the very first week,” he recalled, “I pretty much thought, this is what I'm going to do” from now on.
“Seton Hall Law School was a spectacular place,” Marino said. “It was not at all consistent with the image of law school I had from reading popular literature and what have you.
“There was none of this sense of cutthroat, dog-eat-dog sort of ethos that you associate with law school. It was nothing like that. It was collaborative, everybody pulling for one another. I met some of my closest friends to this day there. The professors were wonderful.
“They had figured out how to have a different kind of law school,” he added, “a law school where people would be collaborative, work together and help one another out. It was not at all cutthroat. That was never the vibe there.”
Adding to that vibe, “I was very fortunate to be elected Editor-In-Chief of the Law Review.”
Marino had never planned on that, until he found out that, back then, members of the Law Review Board received free tuition.
“I said ‘say that again,’” Marino recalled with a laugh. “That immediately changed my mind. So I ran for Editor-In-Chief and I was elected. (Soon afterward) I had offers from law firms all over the country. I had interviews with federal judges” to clerk.
His steps up the ladder after college included clerking for Maryanne Trump Barry for one year, and later a stint at the firm Robinson, Wayne, Riccio & LaSala.
“I wanted to get into a firm where I could actually try cases,” he said.
Marino opened his own law firm in 1996. It is a six-lawyer boutique firm that does complex civil litigation and white-collar criminal defense work.
Prior to joining the Seton Hall Board of Regents, Marino was on the Board of Trustees at Drew for nine years.
“I love Drew, too,” he said. He stepped down to join SHU’s board five years ago.
Marino was instrumental in interviewing candidates to replace former Seton Hall president Dr. Gabriel Esteban, who resigned in 2016 to take the same position at Big East conference member DePaul. That search eventually resulted in the hiring of current school president Dr. Joseph E. Nyre in 2019. He previously had served as Iona’s president since 2011.
“I was really interested in getting my arms around,” Marino said of the search process, “what it really takes, especially in this moment, to be the president of a place like Seton Hall. I was blown away by Dr. Nyre. He's an unusually talented person who had a very clear vision of what he wanted to do.
“I knew within the first 15 minutes of talking to him that he was the guy we had to get. And we were fortunate to get him.”
Marino calls Nyre “an extraordinarily good, honest, straightforward guy with a wealth of academic experience. He has all the tools, a very personable guy, a wonderful communicator, a very easy person to work with.
“I think,” Marino added, “he has an extraordinary sense of what he wants to achieve as president, with the energy and the drive to do it, and with the ability to see the people he should surround himself with to help realize his vision, and to go out and get them and bring them on board. Or if they’re already on the team, he knows how to empower them and promote them. He has a great vision for everything Seton Hall is, and everything it can be."
Part 2 to follow. There Marino will answer questions pertaining to his vision for the school, future construction, athletics and so much more.
By JP Pelzman
When Kevin Marino first became a Seton Hall basketball fan almost 40 years ago, a practice facility was what you called your team’s gym when it wasn’t being used for a game.
In the current collegiate athletic facility arms race, it has a much different connotation. It also is something Marino, a 1984 Seton Hall Law School graduate and chairman of SHU’s Board of Regents, is working to help make happen.
Still, in these challenging times, the continuing specter of the coronavirus pandemic has had far-reaching effects, making it difficult to attach concrete dates to plans. Thus, Marino understandably refused to put a timetable on the construction of the planned Seton Hall basketball practice facility.
“It would be foolish to say we’ll do it by this date when things are changing every day,” Marino said in an interview with PirateCrew.com. “But I can tell you this--at the highest levels of the administration, and the board, it is absolutely understood that (a practice facility) is vitally important to the future success of our basketball program. We have architects finalizing the design and it’s a major priority for our (capital) campaign to get a practice facility.
“Seton Hall is a top-tier basketball program,” he added, “in what I think is the best college basketball conference in the country. You really do have to have a practice facility that is absolutely first-tier. Everybody recognizes how critical it is. I'd be very surprised if that does not become a reality.”
Marino, who is in his fifth year on the Board of Regents, submitted his name for the position of chairman and was approved last December, after Pat Murray stepped down after nearly a decade of service in that position.
As the owner and a still highly-involved member of the law firm of Marino, Tortorella & Boyle, P.C. in Chatham, Marino already had plenty on his plate. But his love of Seton Hall made him want to take the position, which has given Marino that much more of a chance to give back to the school that has given him so much.
“I love Seton Hall,” Marino said. “That's probably obvious. I just think, on so many levels, Seton Hall is the ideal place.
“It’s a hard-working, faith-based place,” he added. “The ideal place. To be chairman of the board is an enormous honor. I was thrilled to have that opportunity.
“My trepidation was that it would be an enormous undertaking (to be chairman) and I wondered if I would really be able to do it. Is it different? Oh, yeah.”
Still, Marino says, “It’s been a great ride so far.”
That journey began in the fall of 1981, when Marino first enrolled in Seton Hall Law School. He had graduated from Drew University in 1980 with a Bachelor’s in English and political science, while pondering his future.
“In my senior year at Drew,” Marino said, “I thought about getting a PhD in English and being a professor.”
He also applied to the law schools at Harvard, Yale and NYU, and was turned down. He then spent a “stultifying” year working in the insurance field.
As for his real choices, “I went back and forth on that and couldn’t really decide what to do,” adding that he was told becoming an English professor “is a very, very difficult field to break into.”
Thus, he went to Seton Hall Law School.
“From the very first week,” he recalled, “I pretty much thought, this is what I'm going to do” from now on.
“Seton Hall Law School was a spectacular place,” Marino said. “It was not at all consistent with the image of law school I had from reading popular literature and what have you.
“There was none of this sense of cutthroat, dog-eat-dog sort of ethos that you associate with law school. It was nothing like that. It was collaborative, everybody pulling for one another. I met some of my closest friends to this day there. The professors were wonderful.
“They had figured out how to have a different kind of law school,” he added, “a law school where people would be collaborative, work together and help one another out. It was not at all cutthroat. That was never the vibe there.”
Adding to that vibe, “I was very fortunate to be elected Editor-In-Chief of the Law Review.”
Marino had never planned on that, until he found out that, back then, members of the Law Review Board received free tuition.
“I said ‘say that again,’” Marino recalled with a laugh. “That immediately changed my mind. So I ran for Editor-In-Chief and I was elected. (Soon afterward) I had offers from law firms all over the country. I had interviews with federal judges” to clerk.
His steps up the ladder after college included clerking for Maryanne Trump Barry for one year, and later a stint at the firm Robinson, Wayne, Riccio & LaSala.
“I wanted to get into a firm where I could actually try cases,” he said.
Marino opened his own law firm in 1996. It is a six-lawyer boutique firm that does complex civil litigation and white-collar criminal defense work.
Prior to joining the Seton Hall Board of Regents, Marino was on the Board of Trustees at Drew for nine years.
“I love Drew, too,” he said. He stepped down to join SHU’s board five years ago.
Marino was instrumental in interviewing candidates to replace former Seton Hall president Dr. Gabriel Esteban, who resigned in 2016 to take the same position at Big East conference member DePaul. That search eventually resulted in the hiring of current school president Dr. Joseph E. Nyre in 2019. He previously had served as Iona’s president since 2011.
“I was really interested in getting my arms around,” Marino said of the search process, “what it really takes, especially in this moment, to be the president of a place like Seton Hall. I was blown away by Dr. Nyre. He's an unusually talented person who had a very clear vision of what he wanted to do.
“I knew within the first 15 minutes of talking to him that he was the guy we had to get. And we were fortunate to get him.”
Marino calls Nyre “an extraordinarily good, honest, straightforward guy with a wealth of academic experience. He has all the tools, a very personable guy, a wonderful communicator, a very easy person to work with.
“I think,” Marino added, “he has an extraordinary sense of what he wants to achieve as president, with the energy and the drive to do it, and with the ability to see the people he should surround himself with to help realize his vision, and to go out and get them and bring them on board. Or if they’re already on the team, he knows how to empower them and promote them. He has a great vision for everything Seton Hall is, and everything it can be."
Part 2 to follow. There Marino will answer questions pertaining to his vision for the school, future construction, athletics and so much more.
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