Smita Butalan

Smita provides legal and consulting services on real estate strategy, growth, and optimization initiatives and LOI and lease review and negotiations. As a passionate and driven professional, Smita brings value oriented and creative solutions to her clients while forging and maintaining strong relationships within the industry.

Smita most recently served as SVP of Real Estate and Associate General Counsel for Ralph Lauren Corporation. With 25+ years of experience, Smita started her career working within in-house legal departments at Ann Inc. and Brooks Brothers with a focus primarily on commercial real estate and general legal affairs. Smita also spent over 8 years working as in-house counsel for Gap, Inc. at their HQ offices in the Bay Area, during which time she led a large team of legal professionals and oversaw leasing and lease administration matters.

Over her 13-year tenure with Ralph Lauren, Smita led a team of real estate business and legal professionals and provided strategic advice to Ralph Lauren’s business teams. Areas of oversight included real estate strategy, acquisition and deal negotiation for all office, retail, and distribution centers, as well as, oversight of all real estate legal matters, including litigation and lease administration. While at Ralph Lauren, she worked on several key initiatives including the acquisition of licensed businesses across Asia Pacific, during which time Smita lived in Hong Kong and played an integral role in growing the business within the region in 2010-2013. She expanded her role in 2017 to include Global Real Estate with an emphasis on growing the Polo brand, right sizing the portfolio and supported several cost savings initiatives and deal re-negotiations that resulted in substantial rent savings for the company. Additionally, Smita was instrumental in executing a corporate office optimization strategy in 2018-2019 and helped mitigate company risk by addressing the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the company’s retail business.