People

Peter Seel Senior Associate, Currently on client secondment

New York

His experience includes the representation of investment banks, asset managers and issuers in connection with collateralized loan obligations as well as other financial institutions in a variety of other structured financial products.

Ryan Selis Of Counsel

Washington, D.C.

An experienced corporate lawyer and strategic advisor, Ryan specializes in guiding high-growth companies and investors through the legal complexities of the startup ecosystem.  With deep experience in the technology sector, he provides comprehensive legal counsel to emerging companies throughout their lifecycle, including startup formation and structuring, venture capital financings, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate and securities law compliance. Ryan also has significant expertise in representing venture capital and private equity investors in financings, growth equity investments, and buy-side and sell-side M&A transactions.  His ability to navigate the fast-paced and evolving technology landscape has made him a trusted partner to clients building transformative businesses.

Ryan's company-side representations include Mercor (AI-powered hiring platform), Magic.dev (automated software engineering), Sapien (autonomous coworkers for financial analysis), Taktile (decision-making models for risk assessment by fintechs), Flower (federated AI framework), Paradigm (AI-powered spreadsheets), 15Five (continuous performance management platform), Certa (third-party vendor compliance and risk management), Uprise (AI-powered financial advisory optimization), Archer Faris (multi-agent security), Better Trucks (last mile carrier), Allium (enterprise blockchain data platform), Coda Project (acquired by Grammarly), Enter Health (AI-first revenue cycle management), and many other exciting startups.

Select Engagements:

• Magic AI - $320 million Series C financing, with contributions from Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross, CapitalG, Eric Schmidt, and others
• Mercor.io - $30 million Series A financing, led by Benchmark with participation from General Catalyst, Peter Thiel, Jack Dorsey, Adam D'Angelo, and others
• Sapien - $8.7 million Series Seed financing, led by General Catalyst with participation from Neo
• Coda - sale to Grammarly 
• Taktile - $20 million Series A financing, co-led by Index Ventures and Tiger Global
• Flower Labs - $20 million Series A financing, led by Felicis Ventures and First Spark
• 15Five - $52 million Series C financing, led by Quad Partners with participation by Next47, Origin Ventures, Edison Partners and others
• Certa - $35 million Series B financing, co-led by Fin VC and Vertex Ventures
• Allium - $16.5 million Series A financing, led by Theory Ventures, and $4.25 million Series Seed financing co-led by Kleiner Perkins and Amplify Partners
• Better Trucks - $15 million Series A financing led by Lobby Capital, Corazon Capital, Venture 53 and others
• Uprise - $3.3 million Seed financing, led by Blank Ventures
• Medicxi, Aditum Bio, Atlas Venture – $20 million Series B investment in Versanis Bio and acquisition of Versanis Bio by Eli Lilly for $1.925 billion
• Marcy Venture Partners - Investment in The Long Drink Company
• Louis Dreyfus Company CVC - Investment in Natural Fiber Welding
• Humaans - $15 million Series A financing, led by Lachy Groom
• Quell - $10 million Series A financing, led by Tencent, Khosla Ventures, Heartcore Capital and others
• Telmai - $5.5 million Series Seed financing, co-led by Glasswing Ventures and .406 Ventures
• Simpl - $40 million Series B, led by Valar Ventures and IA Ventures
• Atalaya Capital Management - Formation of private equity vehicle with Waterfall Asset Management and strategic growth investment into OnPoint Warranty Solutions
  
• HPS Investment Partners – Formation of private equity vehicle with with Wildcat Capital Management and strategic growth investment into Sculptor Real Estate
  

Mark Seneca Partner

Silicon Valley

Mark has a particular focus on the technology sector, having led hundreds of buy-side and sell-side transactions involving prominent high-tech serial acquirers, unicorns and venture back companies. His sell-side work involves multiple acquisitions by Google, Facebook, Salesforce.com, VMware, Microsoft, Intel, IBM, Adobe, Yahoo! and Twitter. These deals include his high profile work for Mosaic ML on its US$1.3 billion acquisition by Databricks, Cruise Automation in its acquisition by General Motors, Nest Labs in its US$3.2 billion acquisition by Google, and Instagram in its US$1.0 billion acquisition by Facebook, which was ranked one of the top 10 largest valued private tech M&A deals in the U.S. in 2012. In an interview with Bloomberg Law for a “Rainmakers” episode, Mark provided a substantive analysis of the Instagram deal, including its industry precedent and influence (click here).

On the buy-side, Mark has served as lead M&A counsel for top public company acquirers (Yelp, Google, Yahoo! and Intellisync) as well as private company serial acquirers (Stripe, Pinterest and Social Finance).

Maria Sergeyeva Senior Associate

Washington, D.C.

Maria's previous experience as a member of the Mergers and Acquisitions group is instrumental in her reviews of the trade aspects of various M&A and other cross-border transactions.  

Maria draws upon her experience in Washington, D.C., Moscow (Russia) and Almaty (Kazakhstan) to approach her work with a broad perspective on international trade-related and other matters. Prior to joining Orrick, Maria worked at the Office of the General Counsel of a multilateral development bank, handled tax and legal matters at one of the Big Four accounting firms, and oversaw the design and implementation of an export compliance program for an international development firm and a U.S. government contractor.

Laure Seror Of Counsel

Paris

Laure advises French and international banks and financial institutions as well as sponsors and borrowers on French and cross-border structured finance, infrastructure and real estate finance transactions.

Prior to joining Orrick in 2017, Laure was an associate for five years in the Banking & Finance department of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

Nathan Shaffer Partner

San Francisco

Nathan represents leading technology companies and achieves results in cases where their most valuable assets are on the line. Nathan’s practice includes federal and state court litigation with an equal split between plaintiff and defense-side representations. He has obtained multiple preliminary injunctions for his clients, won dispositive motions, and represented his clients on appeal.

Nathan focuses on issues at the intersection of high technology and intellectual property law. He regularly represents and counsels clients in disputes involving software licensing, emerging aspects of trademark and copyright law, IP ownership, disputes involving technology products and IP, and open-source licensing.

As a trade secret litigator, Nathan has protected his clients’ intellectual property in fast-paced scenarios involving emergency forensic investigations followed closely by obtaining temporary restraining orders and injunctions.

Prior to joining Orrick, Nathan served as a law clerk to Judge Dorothy W. Nelson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Judge John A. Mendez of the Eastern District of California.

Nikita Shah Partner

Austin; San Francisco

Niki advises entrepreneurs, senior in-house leadership, and investors of technology companies at all stages and across a broad range of industries, including consumer internet, enterprise software, AI, fintech, edtech, delivery, healthcare, retail, digital media and sharing economy.

Leveraging a unique professional background, Niki is a trusted advisor to founders and provides strategic insights as outside general counsel to startups, from pre-seed to exit.

Niki has advised companies and venture capital firms on over 150 transactions, including venture capital financings, mergers and acquisitions, public offerings and secondary offerings, with an aggregate transaction value in excess of $20 billion.

Niki’s prior company-side representations include Yelp, DocuSign (IPO team), Blue Nile, Origin Materials, Orbus Therapeutics, Singularity Education Group, SmartRecruiters, and TravelBank, among others.

Niki has also represented leading venture capital firms and strategic investors, including a16z, Battery Ventures, General Catalyst, Institutional Venture Partners, Spark Capital, SVB Capital, Temasek and Founders Fund, among others.

Before joining Orrick, Niki served as the Associate General Counsel at MasterClass, where she provided legal and strategic counsel on corporate and equity matters, BD and strategic partnerships, product development, content and production, marketing, IP, and data privacy. Niki started her emerging companies and venture practice at Cooley LLP and advised startup companies in-house at Techstars.

Evgeniya Shakina Senior Associate

Washington, D.C.

As part of her practice, Evgeniya advises clients on economic sanctions administered by the U.S. Department of the Treasury (OFAC), export control regulations (EAR/ITAR), the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and federal procurement regulations.

She also has experience assisting clients in unfair trade practice disputes, including antidumping and countervailing duty proceedings, CFIUS/Exon-Florio examinations of foreign investment, and trade compliance due diligence in corporate transactions.

Rachel G. Shalev Senior Associate

New York

Rachel represents clients in high-stakes, complex litigation. She has argued successfully in federal and state appellate courts and has been the lead drafter of briefs and dispositive motions in both state and federal court and the U.S. Supreme Court. Rachel’s experience litigating and advising clients covers a wide range of substantive areas. She focuses in particular on tough questions of constitutional law, administrative law, and statutory interpretation. Rachel also maintains an active pro bono practice.

Prior to joining Orrick, Rachel served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer, Judge Cornelia T.L. Pillard of the D.C. Circuit, and Judge William A. Fletcher of the Ninth Circuit. Rachel received her J.D. from Yale Law School, where she served as a student director of the Supreme Court Advocacy Clinic and as Essays Editor of the Yale Law Journal. She graduated from Williams College and received master’s degrees from University College London and University of St. Andrews, which she attended as a Marshall Scholar.

Marc R. Shapiro Partner

New York

Marc represents clients in federal and state court at the trial and appellate levels with a particular focus on class actions, multi-district litigation, and mass joinders. Among Marc’s current engagements, he represents Johns Hopkins University and Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America in over a dozen class actions arising out of a data breach of the MOVEit file transfer software; University of Washington in a pandemic-related class action seeking refunds of tuition and fees on behalf of students; ZoomInfo Technologies LLC in a data privacy class action alleging unlawful disclosure of personal information under federal and state laws; Goldman Sachs in a pay and promotion gender discrimination class action; NCAA in concussion and injury-related cases throughout the country; Marathon Oil Corporation in nationwide climate change litigation; and multiple foreign defendants in a class action arising out of allegedly defective drywall.

Recently, Marc successfully prevailed at trial before the Delaware Chancery Court and earned Litigator of the Week recognition by Law.com for defeating claims by Netflix star Julia Haart that she owns half the shares of Elite World Group; secured dismissal of a dozen class actions against the University of California and Santa Clara University brought by students seeking refunds of tuition and fees due to COVID-driven transition to remote instruction; and defeated class certification and secured affirmance on appeal by the Ninth Circuit in an employment discrimination class action against Microsoft.

Marc served as a law clerk to Judge Betty B. Fletcher of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Prior to joining Orrick, Marc worked as an appellate and post-conviction attorney for the Equal Justice Initiative. In that capacity, he engaged in trial level and appellate representation of clients in both state and federal court, including two cases that were briefed and argued before the United States Supreme Court.

Gaelyn Sharp Of Counsel

Los Angeles; New York

Gaelyn has represented a wide range of financial institutions including fund sponsors, issuers, underwriters, placement agents, investment advisers and investors in connection with a wide range of financing transactions including collateralized loan, bond and debt obligations; synthetic collateralized debt obligations; trade receivables; various derivative instruments and structured finance products; and private equity funds and hedge funds.

David Sharrow Partner

Boston

David brings a wealth of expertise, focusing on diverse cutting-edge technologies, including life sciences (biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, digital health, genomic technology), fintech, artificial intelligence, information technology (hardware, software, SaaS, and database solutions), edtech, renewable energy, sustainable technologies, AR/VR and cybersecurity.

He advises clients on corporate partnerships, strategic alliances and licensing agreements with leading U.S. and global entities, as well as major research universities and institutes. His experience includes navigating the IP and technology aspects of venture capital financings, public offerings and some of the largest M&A transactions involving venture-backed companies.

David has lectured at major institutions, including Tulane, Yale, Princeton, NYU, Columbia, Cornell and Fordham.