Certilman Balin hires Lacey as an associate in its land use/zoning practice group

Hauppauge, NY Melanie Lacey has joined Certilman Balin as an associate in the land use and zoning practice group. She earned a juris doctor from Rutgers Law School, a master of science in Real Estate Development from Columbia University, and a bachelor of arts in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She also completed an undergraduate semester abroad at Université Paris Sorbonne.

She is the recipient of numerous academic awards and honors including staff editor at Rutgers Journal of Law & Public Policy and the Nicholas & Kathleen Talvacchia Land Use & Real Estate Development Award. 

At Columbia University, she was a member of the third place team in the MIT Case Collaborate Real Estate Competition, a leading real estate development case competition.

Prior to joining Certilman Balin, she gained internship, externship and court clerkship experience. She was a researcher at the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania where she co-led a state-wide empirical analysis of court filings relating to Pennsylvania Abandoned & Blighted Property Conservatorship Act.

She was an extern at the New York City Housing Development Corp., a judicial clerk for the honorable Francis Hodgson, Jr. in the Superior Court of New Jersey, and an extern in the United States Bankruptcy Court in the District of New Jersey. In Philadelphia, she was a law clerk at a boutique real estate law firm, McCabe, Weisberg & Conway, P.C., and a real estate development associate at Mt. Airy.

A certified mediator in small claims and landlord/tenant disputes in the state of New Jersey, Lacey is also a member of the Urban Land Institute. She is admitted to practice in the state of New York, and pending admission to New Jersey.