Cathleen D. Ward, partner and co-leader of Lippes Mathias LLP's West Palm Beach office, will speak at Tomorrow.City USA, taking place April 14-15 in West Palm Beach.

Tomorrow.City USA is the American flagship event from Smart City Expo World Congress by Fira Barcelona, convening more than 2,000 public, private, and philanthropic leaders focused on advancing U.S. cities through urban innovation. The event addresses urban priorities, including AI deployment, data infrastructure, digital connectivity, climate resilience, housing, workforce development, and frontier research spanning space, quantum, semiconductor, biotech, and cybersecurity sectors.

Ward, who also serves as West Palm Beach District 1 city commissioner, will participate in a panel titled "Legal and Policy Frameworks to Modernize U.S. Cities." The session examines how legal and policy tools can enable smarter urban development while preserving public accountability and equity, with discussion centered on navigating regulation, structuring public-private partnerships, managing risk, and translating civic priorities into scalable action.

About Cathleen D. Ward

Cathleen D. Ward represents financial institutions and business owners in commercial lending, real estate, contracts, and general corporate and business matters.

Ward's experience includes reviewing due diligence materials and drafting and negotiating documents for transactions, including asset purchases, stock purchases, construction loans, refinancing, working capital loans, equipment purchases, and real estate acquisitions. She has assisted and closed commercial transactions ranging from start-up business transactions to complex business and real estate acquisitions.

Ward's corporate work includes providing guidance to businesses on corporate structure — such as entity formation and corporate governance — and other general business matters, including licensing, sales, mergers, and acquisitions. She has acted as corporate counsel across a variety of industries, including the technology industry, where her experience includes preparing privacy policies, user agreements, and development agreements for software applications, and the citrus industry, involving the preparation of licensing and sublicensing agreements with local and international agencies, variety developers, propagators, and growers.

As a closing attorney for commercial lenders, Ward prepares and reviews loan files for conventional commercial loans as well as SBA 7(a) and 504 loans, advises loan officers and processors, and drafts, analyzes, and negotiates loan and finance documents.

About Lippes Mathias LLP

Lippes Mathias is a full-service law firm with 230 attorneys serving clients regionally, nationally, and internationally. With offices in Buffalo, Clarence, Albany, Long Island, New York, Rochester, Syracuse, and Saratoga Springs, N.Y.; Greater Toronto Area; Chicago, Ill.; Jacksonville, Tampa Bay, and West Palm Beach, Fla.; Cleveland, Ohio; San Antonio, Texas; Oklahoma City, Okla.; and Washington, D.C., the firm represents publicly and privately owned companies, private equity and venture capital firms, independent sponsors, family offices, real estate developers, financial institutions, municipalities, governmental entities, and individuals.

Ranked No. 204 on The National Law Journal's NLJ 500 list of the largest law firms in the United States by attorney headcount, Lippes Mathias is proud to be recognized year after year by The Best Lawyers in America®, U.S. News – Best Lawyers®, Super Lawyers, and Chambers USA. For more information, visit www.lippes.com.