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CourtneyMerriman

She | Her | Hers

Partner

"My goal is to help clients reach their own goals in a timely, efficient, and pleasant manner with as little stress as possible."

Overview

Biography

With New York City-based training and experience, Courtney advises clients in the acquisition, disposition, development, and financing of commercial properties, with a particular focus on big box shopping centers, multi-unit apartment complexes, and commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) throughout the East Coast. Her diverse client base includes individuals, small businesses, national corporations, and not-for-profit and for-profit organizations.

She has extensive experience representing landlords and tenants in commercial leasing negotiations for retail, office, and manufacturing spaces. Courtney routinely provides substantive support in connection with real estate matters involving easements and rights of way, leasing, adverse possession, eminent domain, and title examination.

As examining counsel to several title-insurance companies, Courtney analyzes and examines real estate titles. Additionally, as counsel to energy-industry clients, Courtney provides guidance on land-use matters and establishing environmental easements and deed restrictions.

Courtney serves as the managing director of Barclay Damon's Syracuse office and is a member of the firm's Management Committee.

Bar Associations

  • American Bar Association
  • Central New York Women's Bar Association
  • New York State Bar Association
  • Onondaga County Bar Association

Selected Memberships & Affiliations

  • Barclay Damon’s Women’s Forum
  • Diocese of Syracuse Catholic Lawyers Guild
  • ICSC: Innovating Commerce Serving Communities
Experience

Representative Experience

  • Acted as lead real estate and financing attorney for a client’s purchase of four commercial shopping centers located in four states outside of New York State. The purchase was financed with a $21 million conduit loan and was secured by four mortgages.
  • Acted as lead real estate and finance attorney in the $30 million refinance of four commercial shopping centers located in four states outside of New York State. The loan was secured by four mortgages. This financing included the defeasance of two existing loans simultaneous with the $30 million closing.
  • Acted as lead real estate and finance attorney for a client’s purchase of a shopping center. The client assumed a loan from the seller and worked extensively with the lender's counsel on the loan-assumption documents.
  • Acted as lead real estate and finance attorney in connection with several dozen multi-million shopping-center acquisitions and refinances, totaling over $875 million in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia, many of which contained a 1031 like-kind exchange component and the assignment of an existing mortgage.
  • Provided an extensive lease examination for a client’s multi-million utility-company asset acquisition.
  • Represented a utility company in establishing deed restrictions and environmental easements on dozens of former manufactured-gas plant sites, as required by the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation.
  • Represented a seller in a $20.5 million sale of a retail shopping center in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, that was a relinquished property in a 1031 exchange. 
  • Represented a company in its financing and acquisition of a major pasta company.

Prior Experience

  • Hiscock & Barclay, LLP, Counsel
  • Windels Marx Lane & Mittendorf, LLP, Associate
  • Archdiocese of New York Office of General Counsel, Summer Associate

Selected Community Activities

  • United Way of Central New York, Board of Directors Member
  • Catholic Charities of Onondaga County, Board of Directors Member, Executive Committee Member, House of Providence Awards Dinner Chair
  • Onondaga County Bar Association Volunteer Lawyers Project, Family Court Clinic Volunteer
  • Baltimore Woods Nature Center, Inc., Former Board of Directors, Vice President
  • Samaritan Center, Weekly Volunteer

Selected Honors

  • The Best Lawyers in America®: Banking and Finance Law, 2026
  • City & State New York, Responsible 100 List, 2024
  • Central New York Business Journal, 40 Under 40, 2020
Knowledge

Selected Media

  • Law360, "Barclay Damon Starts AI Committee, Taps New Practice Chiefs"

Selected Alerts & Blog Posts

Featured Media

Alerts

New York LLC Transparency Act Now in Effect

Alerts

New York State Enacts the Trapped at Work Act to Prohibit "Stay or Pay" Agreements

Alerts

New York State Restricts Time Period for Third-Party Actions

Alerts

Massachusetts Federal Court Permits Sharing Clause in Protective Order in Products Liability Case

Alerts

NYS Court of Appeals Holds That Parent May Not Recover for Emotional Injuries in Prenatal-Injury Case

Alerts

Smarter Inventory Management for Pharmacies: Navigating Online Marketplace Compliance