ADR Profile
Mr. Certilman is highly focused on management of the arbitration process. He is committed to hands-on process management, dedicated to cost effective and expeditious dispute resolution while respecting party process agreements and is familiar with major rulesets including AAA, ICDR, UNCITRAL, CPR, ICC and JAMS. He has served in more than 400 domestic and international arbitrations (more than thirty as panel chair) and 150 mediations since 1988 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 a mediator of domestic and cross-border disputes and 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, is a Fellow of The Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and has been granted its Chartered Arbitrator designation, the CIArb’s highest professional accreditation. 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 (International, Large Complex Case Commercial, M&A, Construction, Employment and Technology panels), the Tech List of the Silicon Valley Arbitration and Mediation Center, International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR)(Commercial and Technology 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 is highly focused on using the case management process to achieve a balanced, fair and efficient resolution process and prefers to allow counsel to present their cases with a minimum of interruption 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. 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 as a leading practitioner 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.
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 AAA/ICDR and CPR and is a former mediator for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. He typically serves in cases involving mergers and acquisitions, technology, licensing, IT, business process outsourcing, IP, 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 a frequent speaker on ADR topics including arbitration skills and dispute review boards in IT and IP agreements. He has written on the importance of cybersecurity to ADR practitioners and has taken robust measures to preserve confidentiality and information security. He has been named a Super Lawyer® in ADR for more than fifteen years in New York Metro, Connecticut and New England.