Kathie S. Lee is currently Vice President and Associate General Counsel for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.  Kathie leads the franchise legal team and is responsible for transactional, regulatory, operations, financing, workouts, and compliance work for Starwood.  She provides advice and counsel to the development, operations, finance, architecture and construction, brand management, and other teams within Starwood.

Prior to joining Starwood, Kathie was Vice President, Corporate Counsel for Prudential Financial, Inc.   Prior to Prudential, Kathie was with Cendant Corporation’s real estate division lastly as Vice President, Legal.  Kathie clerked for two federal bankruptcy judges, the last in the Southern District of New York.

Kathie is on the Board of Directors for the Southeast Franchise Forum, the Board of Directors for the Atlanta Women’s Franchise Network (a committee of the International Franchise Association), the Executive Committee for Georgia Women in Lodging (an affiliate of American Hotel & Lodging Association), and is the Corporate Counsel Liaison for the International Franchising Committee of the International Bar Association.  Kathie was appointed and served on the Governing Committee of the ABA Forum on Franchising as the Director of the Corporate Counsel Division from 2008 to 2010.  Kathie is a member of the Association of Corporate Counsel, National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, Hospitality Lawyer, ABA Forum on Franchising and the International Franchise Association.  Kathie mentors recently transitioned in-house counsel and has spoken on a number of panels on a variety of legal issues.