Mark Silberman

Adjunct Professor

Mark A. Silberman serves as General Counsel of the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, the largest such agency in the country.  He is responsible for handling and/or overseeing all agency legal and policy matters for the commission, including formulating policy and regulatory initiatives, litigation and rule-making, environmental review and reviewing applications for special permits.  He represents the commission in Mayoral and interagency initiatives.  Working closely with Chair and executive staff, he helps to create and implement comprehensive strategies for accomplishing the agency’s legislative mandate and communicating the commission's substantive message.  As General Counsel, he also manages the Legal Department consisting of a Deputy Counsel and a three person Enforcement Department with one attorney.  Prior to becoming General Counsel at the Commission, he was Director of Enforcement for three years.

Prior to joining the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, Mr. Silberman was a Litlgation Associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, N.Y. Environmental Law and General Litigation Groups.  There, he represented private, nonprofit and government clients on a wide variety of environmental, civil and criminal matters.  A prominent case he lead won $1.2 million settlement for West Harlem Environmental Action and the Natural Resources Defense Council in a pro bono action against the City of New York for public nuisance caused by the operation of the North River Sewage Treatment Plant in Harlem.

Before matriculating at Hofstra University School of Law, Mr. Silberman was a lobbyist in Washington, D.C. for Friends of the Earth, from 1981 to 1987.

Mr. Silberman earned his Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies and Political Philosophy from University of California, Santa Cruz (1981) and his Juris Doctor from Hofstra University School of Law (1990).  He was a member of the Hofstra Law Review and Hofstra Environmental Law Digest and a recipient of the  Leon Stern Award, Outstanding Law Student Award.

Mr. Silberman is admitted to practice in the states of New York and New Jersey, as well as, the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York and the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York.