People

Kelly Choo Managing Associate

Singapore

Kelly’s practice focuses on project development, mergers and acquisitions and general corporate matters with a particular focus on renewable energy infrastructure projects.

Prior to joining Orrick, Kelly practised for 5 years in local law firms in Singapore where she advised multi-national corporations and private companies on private M&A transactions as well as corporate and commercial agreements. Thereafter, Kelly served as Legal Counsel of a renewable energy infrastructure asset development platform. During that time, she was seconded to the company’s Australian offices where she was actively involved in advising on the projects in that region.

James Chou Senior Associate

Washington, D.C.

Prior to joining Orrick, James was an associate at Buckley LLP. Previously, he spent nearly 10 years as a Defense Analyst and a Senior Operations Research Analyst for the U.S. Army, where he focused on cybersecurity, defense policy, and program analysis. He also spent more than three years in the defense industrial base as an IT Project Manager and Policy Analyst.

James is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), a Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP), and a Certified Data Privacy Solutions Engineer (CDPSE). He is conversational in Mandarin.

Michael C. Chow Partner

Orange County

Michael has worked on matters for companies including Canon Inc., Ricoh, Panasonic, eBay, eBay Enterprise, Foxconn, Robert Bosch, Realtek, Anker, Fujitsu Limited, and NVIDIA Corporation covering technologies such as eCommerce, Bluetooth, automotive technology, optical networking and telecommunication, graphics processing, and signal equalization.

Prior to law school, Michael was a mechanical engineer with M-E Engineers, Inc., in Culver City, Calif., where he designed the HVAC systems, including sizing equipment and devising airflows, for hospitals, sporting venues, and office buildings. His projects included Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital in Whittier, Calif., and Citizens Bank Arena in Ontario, Calif.

Mark Christy Partner

Chicago

Mark has nearly 15 years of experience in project finance. His clients include major financial institutions (tax equity investors and infrastructure funds), lenders, developers, and sponsors, particularly those active in the renewable energy sector. He regularly advises clients on opportunities stemming from the Inflation Reduction Act, specifically Section 6417 direct pay opportunities and Section 6418 tax credit transfers.

Mark also advises clients in a wide variety of structured finance, including transactions relating to CLOs, warehouse/leverage facilities, and other securitization structures, real estate mortgage investment conduits (REMICs), commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS), and real estate investment trusts (REITs).

Benjamin Cichostepski-Lesage Partner

Paris; Paris Tech Studio

Ben is the founding partner of Orrick's French Tech Companies Group. For more than 15 years, he has been advising high-potential innovative companies as well as venture and tech growth investors on all their corporate private equity and M&A transactions in France and globally.

As such, he is involved in every stage of their development, from incubation and fundraising to external growth and industrial exits as well as public offerings (IPO, secondary).

Ben has significant experience advising French companies expanding into the United States, and assists them over the full lifecycle of their overseas growth. He also counts a number of American investors and buyers among his clients.

From his first venture deal in 2006, where he represented Lightspeed Venture Partners in Wikio’s Series A, which became Teads, a company he then accompanied for 11 years until its sale to Altice, Ben has led more than 320 corporate tech transactions. He has been involved in the main exit transactions in recent years, particularly those with a franco-american element such as Neolane/Adobe, La Fourchette/TripAdvisor, Stupeflix/GoPro, eNovance/Red Hat, Regaind/Apple, Zenly/Snap, Teads/Altice, Getaround/Drivy, Glose/Medium, Sqreen/Datadog, Lalilo/Renaissance Learning, Tempow/Google, Context/Integral Ad Science, Monk/ACV Auctions, Cajoo/Flink, Shipfix/Veson Nautical, Bereal/Voodoo.

Ben's leadership has contributed to placing Orrick as the #1 Venture Capital and Tech Growth practice in France (ranked #1 by Pitchbook in 2021, 2022, 2023 - CF News in 2022, 2023). 

Recognized as a key lawyer in the market in venture capital and tech growth, Ben was ranked No. 1 in the "Top 10 Influential French Venture Capital Lawyers in Private Equity 2023" by Business Today. He was named "Lawyer of the Year" in the 2023 edition of Best Lawyers France in the Venture Capital category. He is also ranked as a Leading Individual by The Legal 500 EMEA in Private Equity - Venture Capital/Growth Capital since 2020 and was voted as the most active tech lawyer in France in 2019 by transaction volume in CF News’ ranking.

Ben is the founder of Orrick Paris Tech Studio, a one of a kind office and working space created in June 2022 and located in the heart of the Paris Tech scene, which is the headquarters of Orrick's French Tech practice.

Eric Citizen Managing Associate

Silicon Valley

Eric joined Orrick upon graduating from Southern University Law Center (SULC). While in law school, Eric worked as a legal intern at Google Cloud and Chronicle LLC, where he supported the legal team on a variety of corporate matters including privacy, cyber security, and transactions. 

As a member of the Technology and Entrepreneurship Clinic at SULC, Eric assisted with providing free legal services in connection with trademark and patent law issues, as well as services in connection with entity formation for entrepreneurs, non profits, and inventor clients with limited financial resources. 

While at SULC, Eric served as Managing Editor of the Southern University Law Review. Eric received his B.A. from Northwestern State University, where he graduated cum laude. 

Valerie Clark Counsel

New York

Valerie's practice has a focus on warehouse lending, secured credit facilities, and publicly registered and privately placed asset securitization transactions. Her experience extends to various asset classes, encompassing marketplace consumer loans, solar loans, residential mortgages, single family rental assets, student loans, small business loans, credit card receivables, auto loans, and aircraft loans and leases.

Before joining Orrick, Valerie was counsel in Chapman and Cutler LLP's Asset Securitization Department. She began her career at Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP as a corporate associate.

Damon Clark Project Attorney

Wheeling, W.V. (GOIC)

Mr. Clark works with litigation attorneys and third party vendors to manage the review and production of documents relevant to investigations and litigation. This work includes using early case assessment technology to analyze, categorize and cull data. He also manages teams of skilled professionals performing document review, redaction, analysis, production and drafting privilege logs. Damon assists the litigation team to prepare for trial, including drafting deposition summaries, factual memoranda and exhibit charts. He also works with practice office attorneys on transactional tasks, including contract review and due diligence.

Harry Clark Partner

Washington, D.C.

Harry is experienced in areas such as CFIUS/Exon-Florio examinations of foreign investment, military and “dual use” export control regulations (ITAR/EAR), economic sanctions administered by the U.S. Treasury Department (OFAC), customs regulations, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, anti-money laundering rules, anti-boycott requirements and defense industrial security requirements. He executes internal corporate investigations regarding trade and investment rules and advises on such rules in the context of corporate transactions.

Additionally, Harry has extensive experience with government contracting matters. His government contracting work has included, for example, design and implementation of U.S. Defense Department renewable energy projects. He also represents broad industry coalitions on major trade litigations and international negotiations. His experience in these areas includes a leading role in what is often considered the largest-ever international trade dispute: the controversy regarding unfair softwood lumber imports from Canada. It has involved myriad administrative proceedings before federal agencies, NAFTA panel appeals, WTO dispute proceedings, judicial proceedings and international settlement agreements.

Harry has represented a coalition of major U.S. oil companies in antidumping and countervailing duty litigation. As a related matter, he pursues policy issues with congressional and executive branch officials and advises on international trade rules (e.g., GATT, WTO agreements and NAFTA).

Chambers 2022 recognizes Harry as a leader in the field of export controls and economic sanctions (Chambers Global and Chambers USA), as well as CFIUS (Chambers USA). Previous editions have also recognized Harry’s achievements regarding his work related to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Clients note that Harry provides “accurate, straightforward guidance incredibly efficiently” and “he has an ability to translate complex legal requirements and rules into business-friendly jargon.”

Eugene Clark-Herrera Partner

San Francisco

In addition to traditional project finance, revenue, general obligation and other tax supported municipal bonds, Eugene has experience with a variety of financing structures and characteristics, including private activity bonds, structured products, securitizations, pension obligation bonds, swaps and synthetic fixed rate bonds, and various reinvestment vehicles. Early in his career, he pioneered capital markets access for California public charter schools and advised governmental issuers, foundations, advocacy groups and policy makers in the development and expansion of public charter school access to tax-advantaged financing.  He has also structured innovative philanthropic investments designed to lower facilities financing costs for public charter schools across the country, 

Eugene serves on nonprofit organization boards, including: the Mural Music & Arts Project, an arts-based youth development organization he founded in East Palo Alto, California, to educate, inspire and empower teens through the arts; California Lawyers for the Arts, serving the creative arts community statewide; and the Flywheel Fund, an income sharing-based law school tuition assistance program.  He also serves on the steering committee for the Just the Beginning Foundation's San Francisco Bay Area youth education and pre-law programs.

Prior to joining Orrick, Eugene was a public school teacher and science curriculum developer in the South Bronx and Washington Heights neighborhoods of New York City from 1993 to 1998. He is an alumni of the Teach for America Corps.

Olivia Clements Senior Litigation Attorney

New York

Olivia represents companies and individuals in high-stakes litigation in federal and state courts nationwide. She has served a pivotal role in multiple successful jury trials, including arguing motions and formulating effective direct and cross examination strategies for both fact and expert witnesses. Olivia has extensive experience in all phases of litigation from drafting and responding to complaints to managing fact and expert discovery to drafting briefs to working on creative settlement solutions in alignment with clients' overall business and organizational goals. Her engagements have involved mass torts and product liability, multi-million dollar contract disputes, joint venture and partnership disputes, trade secret misappropriation, and defamation and trade libel. She also has experience with FCPA compliance and investigations.

Olivia maintains an active pro bono practice and serves as a member of the Pro Bono Advocates Council for Volunteers of Legal Service.

Emajae' Clements Associate

Houston

Emajae's practice includes a diverse range of complex litigation and employment litgation matters from across the country. She effectively drafts briefs, works with experts, and provides developed insights to advance her team's trial strategies.

Emajae' received her J.D. from the Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C. While in law school, Emajae' served as the Captain of the Huver I. Brown Trial Advocacy team becoming the Texas Young Lawyers Association's National Trial Competition Regional Champion and National Semi-Finalist. Emajae' was also a student attorney in the Movement Lawyering Clinic.