Partner

Vincent E. Gentile is a partner in the Commercial Litigation Practice Group. He has handled a broad range of civil and commercial litigation matters from trial through appeal, and has represented major corporate clients in complex, multiparty cases and individuals and small businesses in both state and federal courts.

Civil/Commercial Litigation. Vince has substantial litigation experience on a host of commercial and civil issues. He concentrates on financial litigation including defense of accountants and auditors, and on shareholder disputes involving closely-held corporations, including shareholder "oppression" cases and appraisal actions. He successfully tried and defended an appeal on one of the early seminal cases under New Jersey's minority shareholders act and has represented both corporations and shareholders in disputes over valuation and governance.

Vince's recent experience includes:

• Representing a Big Four accounting firm in a five week audit malpractice trial;
• Defending Fortune 500 corporations in consumer and shareholder class action suits;
• Representing a company and the Trustees of a profit sharing plan in an ERISA class action;
• Representing shareholders or corporations in actions challenging mergers or other corporate actions that affect the value of ownership interests;
• Serving as counsel to a special committee of the board of directors of a public company to evaluate the rights of the corporation and certain shareholders to an earn-out payment;
• Representing the founders of a fiber optic company in a suit by a former colleague, who claimed an interest in the company based on the alleged misappropriation of his intellectual property; and
• Representing the surviving 50 percent shareholder of a closely held industrial company in negotiating and litigating issues relating to a buy-sell agreement and to appraisals of businesses and properties worth $150 million.

Over the past 20 years, Vince has served as a court-appointed mediator in complex civil litigations in the federal and state courts in New Jersey.

In General. Vince graduated from Cornell University, magna cum laude, in 1975 and received his law degree from New York University School of Law in 1978. While at NYU, he was a notes and comment editor of the law review. Vince was a law clerk to the Hon. Jacob D. Fuchsberg of the New York Court of Appeals. He served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey and chief of the Civil Division from 1984-1989.

Vince has authored several articles on shareholder litigation and accounting liability issues. Vince has been certified by the New Jersey Supreme Court as a Civil Trial Attorney. He is a master of the Mercer County Inn of Court, a current member of the District VIII Ethics Committee, and a former member of the District VII Fee Arbitration Committee.