Attorney Profile
With more than thirty-five years of experience as a general corporate and commercial attorney and commercial litigator, Mr. Certilman has been engaged in matters across a wide range of areas including:
- Corporate governance
- Investor agreements and disputes
- Acquisitions and divestitures, both asset and equity
- Lender financing transactions and collateralization
- Private investment capital raises
- Transaction due diligence
- Drafting and negotiating a broad range of commercial agreements such as marketing and distribution agreements, trademark and copyright licenses, technology license and service agreements, computer services agreements, software development
- Preparation and negotiation of commercial leases and real property development agreements such as architect, project manager and contractor agreements
- Business operating agreements and joint venture agreements with both domestic and international application
Mr. Certilman’s experience is particularly extensive in the technology law and business process outsourcing fields. Significant projects have included:
- Representation of vendors and clients in more than 200 computer services and business process outsourcing transactions. Transactions have included engagements for IT department outsourcing from 10 to 19,000 seats, desktop and network migrations, technology refresh of both hardware and operating systems, general acquisition and asset management services, desktop and network maintenance services, help desk and call center services, enterprise software licensing, and professional consulting services
- Drafting and negotiation of agreements including e-commerce, online marketing, software, content and technology development agreements, licenses, maintenance agreements and distribution agreements, website development and hosting agreements, online publishing agreements and consulting agreements
- Legal review and assistance preparing and responding to IT services RFP’s
- Domain name disputes
- Trademark prosecutions including TTAB appeals
- General representation of a wide variety of IT and technology businesses
From his unusual experience as both a commercial litigator and a corporate and commercial attorney, Mr. Certilman places great emphasis on preventive lawyering, an approach which requires a litigator’s perspective in the structuring of transactions and drafting of agreements. To help to avoid unexpected outcomes and reduce business risk, he believes that the interests of clients are best served when clients choose to proactively prioritize conflict avoidance over merely reacting to conflicts as they arise. In his legal practice, Mr. Certilman is Of Counsel to the Stamford, Connecticut firm of Benjamin, Gold & Troyb.
Mr. Certilman has heard more than thirty cases as a Trial Referee for the Superior Court of the State of Connecticut, which he also served as a magistrate for fourteen years. He holds an AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell, is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and is regularly recognized by New York Metro, Connecticut and New England Super Lawyers®, Top Lawyers and 200 Outstanding Lawyers of Fairfield County and other similar organizations.
His hobbies include photography, art and travel.
Mr. Certilman’s c.v. is available here.
