Managing Director

Catherine Lee

Catherine Lee, founder and manager of Lee International Business Development since 1997, focuses her current practice around greenhouse gas emissions trading internationally. An attorney who has served public- and private-sector clients in South Africa, Brazil, the U.S. and Canada, she advises clients on all aspects of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under the Kyoto Protocol, the Voluntary Carbon Standard and other emerging carbon standards, and provides legal services to both sellers and buyers of emissions reductions. Lee has extensive experience in the area of waste management and renewable energy. She is fluent in Portuguese, having lived and studied law in Brazil, and has a working knowledge of Spanish.

Prior to establishing Lee International, Lee was in private practice at a 70-lawyer firm in the state of Maine where she managed the firm’s advocacy work before the state legislature, chaired the firm’s environmental practice group, handled media relations, supervised market research, and served as spokesperson for clients. She represented waste-to-energy, landfill and biomass facility and waste management clients addressing oversight for project evaluations, health and safety compliance issues, state and local permitting, multi-million dollar financing, contract negotiations, and general project management issues.

She is a graduate of Barnard College, Columbia University, and the Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University. She is admitted to practice law in the state and federal courts of New York and Maine and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Memberships

• New York Bar Association
• Maine State Bar Association
• Maine State Bar Assoc. Women’s Law Section, founding member, Pro-bono subcommittee, chair
• The Maine International Trade Center, board of directors, former chair
• University of Southern Maine Business School, board of advisors
• University of Southern Maine Capital Campaign Committee, member
• Lee Auto Mall, board of directors
• Maine Partners of the Americas Program, executive committee
  Business Women’s Association of South Africa
• Institute of Waste Management of Southern Africa
• Safe Passage (Guatemala-based, non-profit that works with children that scavenge at the Guatemala city landfill), former member board of directors

Awards

• 2005 Maine State Bar Association Director’s Award presented by Volunteer Lawyers Association for work in the area of domestic violence
• Maine State Bar Association’s Caroline Dube Glassman Award for service to women in the community
• 2000 Maine International Trade Center's Service Provider of the Year Award.