People

Spencer Sinclair Senior Associate

Houston

Spencer is a trusted advisor to a diverse range of clients, including renewable energy developers, private equity investors, multi-national energy companies, and startups, providing expert guidance on complex transactions and helping clients achieve their most important business goals. Known for his strategic insight and practical approach, Spencer delivers tailored solutions that drive value and mitigate risks, ensuring successful outcomes for clients across the full lifecycle of their ventures.

As global energy demand continues to grow amidst an increased focus on decarbonization of the energy industry, Spencer takes pride in working closely with pioneers involved in the energy transition, helping to steer development and investment in solutions such as carbon capture and storage, hydrogen, ammonia, offshore wind, renewable power generation, energy storage and other exciting technologies that are critical to achieving decarbonization on a global scale.

Gary Siniscalco Senior Counsel

San Francisco

Gary has handled numerous class actions, pattern and practice cases and government audits, in court and before the EEOC and Department of Labor. Most recently, Gary served as senior counsel on the Orrick team that obtained a complete dismissal for Oracle in OFCCP v. Oracle, a high-stakes systemic compensation discrimination case that garnered national media attention. Gary and the Orrick team was named "Litigator of the Week" by American Lawyer for their role in the successful defense of Oracle in litigation against the OFCCP. He brings a particularly unique perspective to clients on matters involving the EEOC, having served as regional counsel and senior trial attorney for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in San Francisco prior to joining Orrick.

Gary also has an extensive class actions practice, focusing on litigation, consent decree strategies and preventive advice. He has been designated as an expert or retained as special counsel in several federal court class actions throughout the United States.

Gary’s counseling practice extends beyond the United States and includes assisting U.S. multinational companies in dealing with complex employee issues in foreign jurisdictions

Gary is widely recognized as one the top management employment lawyers in the United States by every major ranking organization, including Chambers USA, the National Law Journal, Best of the Best USA (Euromoney), and Who’s Who Legal. Among management employment lawyers in the United States and Europe, Gary is ranked in the top 10 of Who’s Who international management labor and employment lawyers and is described as “absolutely superb.”

Gary also serves regularly on the NYU faculty for training federal judges on employment law, the OFCCP Institute, PLI International Employment Law and ABA Labor and Employment Law Section programs.

Richard Smith Partner

San Francisco

Richard also has represented clients in a wide range of SEC-registered, underwritten and privately placed stock and debt offerings, and he has assisted companies in connection with issuer tender offers (both equity and debt), recapitalizations, restructurings, share repurchase programs, and rights offerings. He regularly represents clients in the preparation and filing of periodic SEC reports, proxy statements and Williams Act reports. He also advises clients on compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 and JOBS Act; reporting under and compliance with Section 16 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934; disclosure and reporting issues; sales of restricted securities and sales of securities by insiders; universal proxy cards; and NYSE/NASDAQ rule compliance and inquiries.

Ashlie J. Smith Senior Associate

Boston

Ashlie grew up in a family of restaurant franchisees, and she learned about the power of a strong trademark at a young age. This understanding led her to pursue a career in trademark and copyright law, and from her start as a trademark prosecution intern at Hewlett Packard Enterprise in law school, through her work in trademark and copyright litigation at Fish & Richardson P.C., her practice has always focused on assisting businesses with their intellectual property needs.  

Ashlie’s practice at Orrick focuses on domestic and international trademark and copyright prosecution and counseling. She has experience assisting businesses ranging from small start-ups to multi-billion dollar corporations with trademark clearance, protection, and strategy. Additionally, Ashlie has extensive experience in intellectual property litigation in federal district courts and at the International Trade Commission. Because of her wide-range of experience, she brings to each matter a unique understanding of the intersection of copyright and trademark clearance and prosecution and enforcement and litigation.      

Jarrad Smith Project Attorney

Wheeling, W.V. (GOIC)

Jarrad 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. Jarrad 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.

Adam Smith Partner

London; Singapore

Neil Snead Project Attorney

Wheeling, W.V. (GOIC)

Neil works with litigation attorneys and third party vendors to manage the review for cyber incident response, 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, quality control, and notification list deliverables.

Larry Sobel Partner

Los Angeles; Houston

As both bond counsel and underwriter’s counsel, he has been responsible for structuring and analyzing the tax aspects of many tax-exempt financings throughout the country.

Larry has extensive experience in handling IRS audits of bond transactions. He has represented issuers in dozens of audits all of which have ended favorably either with the IRS issuing a “no change” letter or by negotiating a reasonable settlement when needed. Larry also has handled a number of submissions under the IRS’ Voluntary Closing Agreement Program (or VCAP). The two most recent VCAP submissions represented cases of first impression for the IRS; one involving an issue of qualified energy conservation bonds relating to determining the amount of those bonds eligible for the federal subsidy; the other involved the plan to convert a “new money” bond issue into an advance refunding (which did not meet all of the requirements for a tax-exempt advance refunding). Both cases ultimately were resolved on the original terms proposed to the IRS.

Larry has also been instrumental in developing new financing techniques and structures. He first devised the tax structure and analysis for, and has served as tax counsel on, Orrick’s tax exempt tobacco revenue securitizations. He has developed the tax structure on numerous tax-exempt prepayments for natural gas for municipal utilities both within and outside of California.

Alex Sobolev Partner

London

Alex’s multidisciplinary practice and transatlantic experience enable him to provide strategic commercial advice for technology led companies, including coordinating and implementing data and consumer risk mitigation projects, providing outsourcing advice and developing key legal risk mitigation strategies in relation to products where the pace of innovation nearly always outpaces the law.

He has advised companies at all stages of the corporate lifecycle, from software development and product launch, through technology licensing, sale and purchase, to mergers and acquisitions of data and tech-heavy businesses. He has assisted organisations with the design, development and implementation of global data protection and compliance policies, as well the management of risk and security associated with data retention, processing and transfer.

Edward Somers Partner

Chicago

Ted is a trusted advisor to the financial services industry in supervisory and enforcement matters before state and federal regulators, including the CFPB, and the DOJ. He also has significant experience guiding clients through enhancements to internal policies, practices, and customer-facing documentation to align with regulator expectations.

Prior to joining Orrick, Ted was a partner at Buckley LLP.

Ramona Sorgenfrei Managing Associate

Düsseldorf

She has experience in telecommunications licensing disputes and litigating FRAND objections and D&O disputes, as well as in disputes under the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods.

In addition to experience in arbitration proceedings under the rules of the ICC, LCIA, UNCITRAL VIAC and the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce (ACHCCI), Ramona acts as administrative secretary in DIS arbitrations. 

She is a lecturer in arbitration and international commercial law at the University of Bayreuth where she also coaches the university's team in the Willem C. Vis Moot. Further to her legal studies, Ramona has also completed a university degree in economics.

During her education, she worked in US firms in Germany and Paris, where she deepened her knowledge of arbitration, litigation, and dispute resolution. Prior to joining Orrick, Ramona worked as a litigation lawyer for a magic circle law firm in Germany, including patent litigation involving patent infringement, nullity, and patent vindication proceedings, particularly in the telecommunications and automotive industries.

Kayla Z. X. Southworth Senior Associate

New York

Kayla advises public and private life sciences, technology, and energy companies, and private equity funds and their portfolio companies, on domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, minority and majority investments, joint ventures, licenses, collaborations, royalty and revenue-sharing financings, and other complex transactions. She also advises clients on New York and Delaware corporate, partnership, limited liability company, and non-profit law, including corporate governance and fiduciary duty matters.

Prior to joining Orrick, she was an Antitrust Associate at Davis Polk and a Litigation Associate at Sullivan & Cromwell.