Casino!
KIM SINATRA
Senior vice president-general counsel and secretary, Wynn Resorts Inc.
Age 50
COMPANY PROFILE
Wynn Resorts Ltd. is a leading developer and opera-
tor of casino resorts whose holding include Wynn Las
Vegas on that city’s Strip and Wynn Macau, a casino
resort in the Macau Special Administrative Region
of the People’s Republic of China. Wynn opened the
Encore expansion in Macau earlier this year. Other
Wynn properties include hotels, casinos, restaurants
and bars. Golf courses, meeting spaces—in Vegas,
even a Ferrari and Maserati dealership—are added
attractions. Formed in 2002 and based in Las Vegas,
Wynn Resorts has 20,600 employees, and 2009 rev-
enues approached $3.5 billion, securing for it the No.
691 slot on the Fortune 1,000.
LEGAL TEAM AND OUTSIDE COUNSEL
Wynn’s legal team is “not as big as you would
expect in a company of this size,” said General Counsel Kim Sinatra. In Las Vegas, she manages two
attorneys on a 10-person staff including intellectual
property specialists, a litigation claims manager and
administrators. The Macau office houses four lawyers
and four additional staff members. Sinatra reports to
the company’s co-founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Stephen Wynn.
Her “alma mater,” Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher of Los
Angeles, provides assistance in matters of corporate
governance and financial reporting. It served as lead
counsel in recent Wynn litigation, a “dust-up” with a
placement agent concerning the raising of investment
funds. The Los Angeles office of New York’s Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom helps in corporate
OUTSIDE COUNSEL
COMPANY
WYNN RESORTS INC.
CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher
transactions. Las Vegas firm Pisanelli Bice also provides external counsel.
“We need to spend more time thinking about billing arrangements regarding our outside counsel,”
Sinatra said. She is a fan of handling large transactions on a cap basis or on the promise of a bonus
for good work. In her view, alternative billing offers
a value-added perspective, but she acknowledged
that firms don’t always agree. “This has been a topic
of discussion for what, the last two decades?” she
asked somewhat impatiently.
DAILY DUTIES
Sinatra starts her workday early, catching up on
e-mail and addressing East Coast matters. She manages to squeeze in a workout and sends her children
off to school before returning to work, toiling late
into the night to accommodate Asia’s 15-hour time
difference from Nevada.
Sinatra is “absolutely” involved in Wynn’s deals—
her background as a corporate transactional attorney
makes this “the favorite part of what we do.” Entertainment is another preoccupation, and she draws
from the experience she accumulated when she
worked for entertainer and entrepreneur Merv Griffin.
Sinatra oversees acquisition of the marquee talent
CORPORATE TRANSACTIONS
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
LITIGATION
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher
