About

Mark Sustana joined Lennar in 2005, and was required to create ‘legal and governance functions to satisfy a board consisting entirely of newly appointed members’ following the extremely difficult situation faced by the company brought on by the late 2000s financial crisis. Advising the company during this unprecedented downturn in the property market is regarded by Sustana as among his main career highlights, with him explaining that this required ‘resolution of conflicts with lenders and joint venture partners, many of whom were struggling for their own survival’. Nonetheless, he was extremely successful in this context and regards this time as a major career achievement. Alongside this, he regards the positive results the company achieved in a highly publicised defamation case resulting in approximately $1bn being awarded to the company as having had an ‘immeasurable positive impact on the company’s reputation’. In recent years, Sustana’s improvements of the legal department have seen it ‘become far more focused on recovery of costs incurred as a result of poor performance by our subcontractors’, and ‘develop processes to systematise our analysis of litigation for better results’. Sustana and his team have been at the forefront of a number of major deals for the company. ‘By far the most important transaction has been Lennar’s acquisition of CalAtlantic Homes. CalAtlantic was half our size, and the integration challenges were significant. The business and legal functions have been effectively integrated during our first year as combined companies, demonstrating the value of Lennar’s carefully established systems and processes’, Sustana says.