ADR Profile
With forty years of experience as a commercial generalist and litigator and twenty years as a state trial referee, Mr. Certilman brings extensive legal and litigation experience to his service as a neutral. He is a Chartered Arbitrator who is exceptionally skilled at management of the arbitration process and the interpersonal relationships within an arbitral tribunal. He is dedicated to cost effective and expeditions dispute resolution while respecting party process agreements and has a strong familiarity with major rulesets including AAA, ICDR, UNCITRAL, CPR, ICC and JAMS. He has served in more than 350 domestic and international arbitrations, both administered and ad hoc, and 150 mediations since 1988 (more than thirty as panel chair) across a broad range of subject areas including investment disputes, business divorces and valuations, asset purchase disputes such as misrepresentation, earn-out provision rights and investment banking fee disputes, commercial contract disputes, product marketing and distribution disputes, IT such as software development, licensing and distribution agreements, business process outsourcing and technology disputes, insurance including coverage and bad faith claims, real estate partnership and valuation, trademark and copyright licensing, telecommunications, life sciences, publishing, manufacturing, franchises, employment, construction, securities and torts. Mr. Certilman is also an Accredited Mediator (CEDR) of domestic and cross-border disputes. Mr. Certilman is available for in-person and videoconference proceedings in any location.
Mr. Certilman is a former Adjunct Professor of Law at Fordham University School of Law teaching International Arbitration (2011-2017). He is a Fellow of The Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and has been granted Chartered Arbitrator status, its highest professional qualification. he is also a Fellow and member of the Board of Directors of the College of Commercial Arbitrators and holds panel appointments with major arbitration panels worldwide including the AAA (ICDR, Large Complex Case, M&A, commercial, construction, employment and technology panels), International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR)(commercial, technology and dispute prevention panels), Court of Arbitration for Art (CAfA), Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (Commercial and Intellectual Property Disputes panels), Asian International Arbitration Centre, Vienna International Arbitration Centre and the British Virgin Island International Arbitration Centre. Mr. Certilman is also a repeat attendee of the Negotiation and Leadership program of the Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation.
In his service as an arbitrator, Mr. Certilman remains highly aware of the reasons why parties choose arbitration and devotes care and attention to the traditional arbitration values of speed, cost-efficiency and subject matter experience. He seeks to keep inquiries to a minimum so counsel can try their cases as they prepared to do and is a skilled and decisive process manager who is also sensitive to working with the parties to create a case management process which is appropriate to their needs and the size of the dispute. He understands the importance of lex mercatoria in the commercial world and brings new ideas into the process through frequent continuing education and is highly focused on using the case management process to achieve a balanced, fair and efficient resolution process. Mr. Certilman is committed to ensuring that his schedule permits him to devote his full attention to matters before he accepts them.
In addition to being a Chartered Arbitrator, Mr. Certilman has been recognized in the field of ADR by his election to fellowship in the College of Commercial Arbitrators. He served as one of twelve elected trustees of The Chartered Institute of Arbitrators from 2005 to 2011. In 2008, he was honored by being elected to serve as chairman of the Board of Trustees, a position he was re-elected to the following year. He is also a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and the New York Bar Foundation. He is also a member of the ADR Section of the New York State Bar Association, the ADR Section of the Connecticut Bar Association, a former two-time chair of the Technology Section of the Connecticut Bar Association and an occasional chair of the ADR Committee of the Fairfield County Bar Association.
As a mediator, Mr. Certilman has enjoyed a high success rate in both domestic and cross-border mediations, which he sees reflecting the value of the wide cross-section of continuing education programs he attends to bring in new ideas for successful mediation. He is an active member of the panel of mediators of the American Arbitration Association, the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR), the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and other organizations and courts and typically serves in domestic and international mediation cases involving mergers and acquisitions, technology, licensing, IT, business process outsourcing, trademarks, copyrights, commercial real estate transactions and general corporate and commercial law.
Mr. Certilman assists parties with early neutral evaluation, as special counsel on ADR matters and as an expert witness. He is also an advocate and speaker on the topic of dispute review boards in IT and IP agreements. Mr. Certilman is decisive and committed to hand-on process management. He has written on the importance of cybersecurity to ADR practitioners and has taken robust measures to preserve confidentiality and information security. He is a New York Metro, Connecticut and New England Super Lawyer® in ADR.
Mr. Certilman’s c.v. is available here.
For a list of recent ADR Programs attended, please click here
For a Selected List of Programs as Trainer/Presenter/Faculty, please click here
Summary of IT-Related Experience, please click here
Selected Questions and Answers re Approach to Arbitration, please click here
