Stephan E. Seeger”™s established Stamford law presence does nothing to negate his Canadian past. Seeger is a hockey man.
Seeger was born in Hamilton, Ontario, where he began skating as a tike and playing organized hockey at age 8.
“I came from a neighborhood where it would be a gloss if I said working class,” said Seeger. “It was real working-class poor in my area.”
Before going to college, Seeger worked on the docks in Hamilton for the International Longshoremen’s Association.
Hamilton has produced NHL professionals like Paul Beraldo, David Andreychuk and Pat Quinn.
“There are great people who come from our area,” said Seeger. “Here in Fairfield County, we have a predominately upper middle class-upper class set of parents in most hockey rinks and they afford their children great opportunities; the best equipment, the most ice time, individual lessons; things that in our neighborhood in Canada just simply were not available to any of us.”
Seeger, a solid hockey player, progressed to the Junior League Canadian level.
“I realized very quickly I wasn”™t going much further than that in playing hockey,” said Seeger, adding, “I always loved hockey, I loved it as a game.”
Seeger, the only one in his family that went to college, graduated in 1990 from the University of Western Ontario with a degree in philosophy. He went on to law school at the University of Buffalo.
“I graduated law school where I met some friends from Stamford,” said Seeger. “We opened practice in 1998 in Connecticut. It was kind of fortuitous that I stayed here.”
Seeger had planned on taking the New York bar exam, but he met criminal defense attorney and legal analyst for CBS News, Mickey Sherman, who had a strong influence on his professional future.
“We also have some great judges here in Stamford,” said Seeger. “These are great sources of information about my profession, people I respect. At and around that time there were some big cases going on.”
One of the first cases Seeger worked on was the Michael Skakel murder trial, for two years.
“During that time, I started to really dig my heels in and grow some roots here in the Stamford community,” said Seeger. “Since that time, I”™ve made it my home.”
Seeger lives in Stamford with his wife and three kids, his youngest Stephan Jr. got Seeger back rinkside.
“He”™s very active in hockey and has kept me active in youth hockey,” said Seeger.
Seeger has been doing high-profile criminal trials for the past 10 years, including two Gambino organized crime cases representing Anthony “The Genius” Megale.
“I don”™t know why the more shocking cases seem to fall into my lap but they do,” said Seeger. “It”™s probably because I did a couple of them and we were successful in dealing with them.”
Seeger followed hockey through the years but it wasn”™t until his son was born that he was again immersed in the sport.
“We started him playing in tike leagues and I began coaching,” said Seeger. “I got into it much more heavily. Through that, I developed a relationship with many people who had dedicated a lot of their lives to hockey.”
Seeger pointed to Mike Backman, Bob Crawford and Yvon Corriveau as standouts in Fairfield County”™s hockey coaching world.
Seeger is a USA Hockey certified Level 4 coach, and has coached and assisted at various levels with several youth hockey organizations, including Greenwich Blues, Mid Fairfield, Expressway Stars, and the New England Nighthawks.
According to Seeger it”™s not uncommon for young hockey players who graduate college programs to go back to their coaches and their hockey circle for guidance in the professional world.
“My career as a lawyers been an intense one from the very beginning,” said Seeger. “No matter what was going on, after you hang the jacket up and put the jersey on you can go out and play. I like to think of myself as a student of the game.”
Seeger began consulting for semipro hockey players Eric Lind and Ryan Hughes, whom he helped to open the North American Hockey School.
“Through my relationship with them and coaching with them we were focusing on what other levels of hockey there were available to people in the area,” said Seeger.
In 2006 and 2007 Seeger, Lind and Hughes developed a single-A semipro hockey team called the New England Stars.
The trio hatched the team as a business experiment. Seeger used the typically Ivy League education of the post-collegiate-players to contribute to the team.
We did self-representation and self-management for the team,” said Seeger. “It was a grassroots idea and grassroots effort and it became a team that went 22-0 in a four-team league.
Though the team was a great success North Eastern Hockey League had problems and disbanded in 2008.
Seeger, who continues to ponder the possibilities of semipro hockey in the area, currently sits on the board of directors of the Atlantic All Stars, an elite youth hockey program.
