Lee Mann

Practice Areas

Construction Litigation

Construction Law

Arbitration

Career

Lee Mann is the Team Leader of the Construction & Infrastructure Projects Team at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP. The Team has earned top national and state rankings from Chambers USA for the last ten years, including two nationwide "Construction Law Team of the Year" awards. The team is also ranked National Tier 1 by U.S. News-Best Lawyers "Best Law Firms" and earned top rankings – both National Tier 1 and Recommended Firm – from Legal 500 for years 2015 to 2021.

Lee has been recognized by Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business in the area of Construction for the last six years, from 2017 to 2022. He was also recognized in The Best Lawyers in America® for Construction Law in 2022 and the nine years immediately preceding. Lee was also recognized in the 2010, 2012, 2016-2021 editions of Legal 500 US for Construction, has been listed repeatedly in The International Who's Who of Business Lawyers for Construction, and is AV® rated by Martindale-Hubbell.

Lee focuses his practice almost exclusively on construction and government contracting law. He has mediated, arbitrated, and litigated large and complex construction disputes for owners, contractors, subcontractors, and suppliers on public and private projects throughout the United States and internationally, including natural gas pipelines, hydroelectric facilities, road and bridge projects, pulp and paper projects, large dams, water treatment plants, hospitals, manufacturing facilities, commercial projects, condominiums, schools, casinos, military installations, and convention centers. By way of example, Lee has represented:

• The pipeline contractor in the successful defense of lawsuits and the prosecution of claims against the owners of large gas pipeline projects in Louisiana, Texas, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio;

• The contractor in recovering $40 million from the Corps of Engineers on the Seven Oaks Dam project in Southern California;

• The public owner (MWRA) in defeating more than $40 million in claims on the $3.5 billion Boston Harbor Project;

• An EPC contractor in the prosecution of claims in an ICC arbitration arising from a $2 billion pulp project in South America;

• The construction manager in successfully defending more than $50 million in claims from contractors on the Phase IV Expansion of the Georgia World Congress Center;

• The contractor in the successful defense of five lawsuits seeking more than $40 million in damages arising from hospital projects in Florida, Georgia, and Texas;

• A hydroelectric supplier in litigation in the successful defense of lawsuits and arbitrations in California, Arkansas, and Connecticut;

• Highway contractors in litigation against the Georgia Department of Transportation and Caltrans; and

• A heavy civil contractor in the defense of $200 million in claims brought by a qui tam plaintiff under the False Claims Act.

Lee is especially familiar with mechanic's lien law and bond law, having prosecuted or defended more than 100 mechanic's lien and payment bond claims.

Personal

Lee has dedicated his entire legal career, and most of his life, exclusively to the construction and government contracting industry. Lee’s father and grandfather were general contractors, and Lee grew up traveling to construction projects around the southeastern United States. While in junior high and high school, Lee worked on construction projects as a laborer, roofer, carpenter, and estimator. As a student at Georgia Tech, Lee continued to work on construction projects and served as an interim superintendent on a public housing project near Athens, Georgia.

Lee earned a degree in Industrial Engineering, with Highest Honors, from Georgia Tech in 1985. He then worked on government contracts as a manufacturing engineer with McDonnell Douglas Missile Systems Company in Florida on the design and manufacture of military missiles, including anti-tank missiles, the Tomahawk Cruise Missile, the Advanced Air-to-Air Missile, and the Advanced Cruise Missile.

After seven years with McDonnell Douglas, Lee was selected in 1992 to be a Woodruff Scholar at the University of Georgia School of Law. During law school, Lee served as the Managing Editor of the Georgia Law Review, won three American Jurisprudence awards, and served for two years as a teaching assistant for Civil Procedure under Professor John Rees. Lee graduated magna cum laude from the University of Georgia School of Law in 1995.

Lee began working as associate at Smith, Currie & Hancock in the fall of 1995 and practiced construction and government contracting law almost exclusively. After three years, he moved to the firm now known as Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton with a group of attorneys that formed the Construction Team at Kilpatrick Townsend. Lee was elevated to partner in 2002 and became the Team Leader for the Construction Group at Kilpatrick Townsend in 2018. He wrote the Georgia chapter of State-by-State Guide to Design and Construction Contracts and Claims, published by Aspen and now Wiley, and drafted the annual updates to it and three revised editions for the last 17 years. Lee also wrote the lien section of the Georgia chapter of Fifty State Lien and Bond Law in 1997 and the annual updates to it for the last 25 years. Lee has spoken on multiple occasions about construction law and especially about mechanic’s liens and payment bonds.

Lee enjoys the outdoors, football, golf, and skiing. Like his two sons and his father, stepfather, and brother, Lee is an Eagle Scout. He has been the Scoutmaster for 60 Boy Scouts in Troop 298 for six years and has been the Cubmaster or the Pack Committee Chairman for up to 200 Cub Scouts in Pack 298 for eight years. Lee is also a huge fan of The Masters and has attended more than 100 Tournament Rounds.