People

Nick Sabatino Senior Associate

Sacramento

As a member of Orrick's Restructuring Group, Nick represents a variety of institutional creditors in restructuring-related matters. 

Prior to law school, Nick served as an infantry officer in the Army for over seven years, where he graduated from U.S. Army Ranger School and led organizations of more than 200 personnel in training and combat environments.

Emily Sabo Senior Associate

New York

She represents a variety of market participants, including sponsors, issuers and underwriters, in public and private offerings of commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS).

Formerly, an associate at Thacher Proffitt and Wood, LLP in New York City (also in the Structured Finance group), Emily left Manhattan in 2008 and founded and operated her law firm in the U.S. Virgin Islands, providing a wide variety of legal services, spanning from general civil litigation and bankruptcy litigation, to estate planning, probate, commercial contracts, and general business and transactional law. She also acted as a legislative consultant to a USVI Senator working to craft legislation in various fields, including without limitation, renewable energy law. As part of her diverse practice, and before she engaged in consulting work for the Senator, Emily gained invaluable experience in the field of renewable energy (including related policies and legislation) when she was hired by an off-island private power company to act as legal counsel for all transactional, regulatory and litigation work necessary to complete a ground breaking renewable energy project on the island of St. Thomas.

At Thacher Proffitt & Wood, LLP, Emily represented issuers, underwriters, sellers and servicers in mortgage-backed securities transactions (including public and private offerings of residential and commercial mortgage-backed securities); she also represented banks and other financial institutions in their capacities as lenders, borrowers, issuers and purchasers in structured finance transactions and in connection with asset-based and other secured lending transactions and warehouse facilities with collateral spanning various asset classes.   Prior to her structured finance experience, Emily worked in Merrill Lynch’s State Regulation, Legislation and Government Affairs Department researching, state securities laws, drafting responses for securities litigation and compliance matters and participating in industry committee conferences regarding pending state legislation of industry-wide concern.

Rohit Sachdev Partner

San Francisco

Rohit has extensive experience in the solar, wind, energy storage, and biofuel sectors, and has advised on numerous award-winning transactions. He is recognized by Chambers USA and Chambers Global in the Projects: Renewables & Alternative Energy category. Rohit’s clients describe him as “excellent,” “knowledgeable,” “timely in his work,” “commercially-oriented,” “very plugged into the market” with a “great demeanor."

In recent years, Rohit's practice has focused particularly on project development and project M&A transactions. He has successfully negotiated many GWs of "physical" and "virtual" PPAs and tolling agreements, as well as a variety of construction, supply and other development arrangements. Rohit has also represented clients on the purchase and sale of renewables projects in various U.S. jurisdictions, as well as joint venture and other project asset arrangements. He has particularly focused on the development, financing and sale of domestic and international energy storage projects, including stand-alone, hybrid, front-of-meter and behind-the-meter projects.

Rohit co-leads Orrick’s South Asian Inclusion Network and served as a Fellow for the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity.

He started his legal career at an international law firm in New York, where he focused on project development and project finance transactions across the globe. Prior to law and business schools, Rohit was an investment banking analyst at Credit Suisse in San Francisco where he provided M&A and financial advisory services to technology companies in Silicon Valley.

Sherry-Maria Safchuk Partner

Santa Monica

Sherry’s clients include banks, mortgage originators and servicers, mortgage brokers, commercial lenders, bank holding companies, private equity firms, investment advisors, investment managers, finance companies, fintechs, consumer reporting agencies, data brokers, debt collection companies and related service providers.

She is a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/US), and was a member of the Mortgage Bankers Association’s 2016 class of Future Leaders and the California Mortgage Bankers Association’s 2014 class of Future Leaders.

Prior to joining Orrick, Sherry was a partner at Buckley LLP. She has been an associate in private practice. She also clerked for the Honorable Jeanette J. Clark in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.

Parth Sagdeo Senior Associate

Silicon Valley

Parth’s practice combines his deep technical knowledge and his passion for zealous oral and written advocacy. With the benefit of his Master’s degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering, and engineering experience at leading software companies including Microsoft and Synopsys, Parth dives into the technical weeds and distills the issues on which a case will turn. Informed by his experiences clerking at the District of Delaware and the Federal Circuit, he understands how to convey complex technical and legal concepts in a way that persuades juries and judges.

Parth has experience at all stages of trial and appellate practice. His recent achievements include invalidating a patent claim for indefiniteness, obtaining dismissal of tortious-interference and unfair competition claims brought by a competitor against his client, and securing affirmance of an inter partes reexamination decision in an appeal he argued at the Federal Circuit.

Parth graduated with honors from Harvard Law School, where he led the submissions team for the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology and won the Irving Oberman Memorial Award for best student paper in intellectual property. Prior to law school, Parth used his technical background in computer engineering to write, prosecute, and challenge patents for clients like Apple, Becton-Dickinson, Pixar, and Visa.

Scott Sakiyama Partner, Currently on client secondment

Chicago

Scott has an active appellate practice in federal and state courts throughout the U.S. He has been involved in the SEC’s enforcement program, including the Wells process and the emerging issues surrounding the agency’s whistleblower programs and employee protections thereunder.

He has an active pro bono practice that includes criminal and civil rights matters. He also has been appointed to serve as a member of the Chicago Bar Association’s Judicial Evaluation Committee’s Investigative Division and as a commissioner on the Village of Oak Park’s Community Relations Commission.

Prior to joining Orrick, Scott was a partner at Buckley LLP, where he was also a member of the firm’s Diversity Committee.

Faraaz Samadi Partner

London

He has significant experience in identifying and resolving issues which arise in cross-border technology transactions involving Europe, the U.S. and Asia, having worked in London, Singapore and Shanghai.

Faraaz regularly advises clients on technology service agreements, website terms and conditions, data privacy, renegotiations, intellectual property Iicensing and strategic alliances.

He has represented companies in a wide range of industries including software development, satellite and space, mining and resources, mobile, healthcare, digital marketing, automotive, ride-hailing and logistics.

Eric Sanchez Chief Information Security Officer

Seattle

Eric brings to his role at Orrick extensive experience in the military, governmental and corporate sectors. He served for seven years in Intelligence in the U.S. Air Force and for twelve years as a Cyber Intelligence Officer with the Central Intelligence Agency. He has worked in the private sector, including in post-breach situations, both with leading cyber consultants and global enterprises in the U.S. and UK. Most recently, he was Global CISO at publicly traded global pharma group Kyowa Kirin.

Eric serves as an advisor to startups and venture capital firms dedicated to transforming cybersecurity, including Confidencial, Radiant Security, NDAY Security, NightDragon and Halcyon Inc.

Outside of work, Eric enjoys fishing, cruising, visiting Disney parks and traveling to historical sites.

Maria Sanchez Associate

Los Angeles

Maria drafts and reviews purchase and sale agreements, loan agreements and closing documents for investment funds, institutional investors and developers on real estate transactions, including joint ventures, acquisitions, financings, developments and dispositions. She also advises on lease agreements.

While in law school, Maria was a member of the International Human Rights Law Clinic for multiple semesters, where she worked to pass local resolutions in both the cities of Berkeley and San Francisco based on international human rights principles. She also participated in the East Bay Community Law Center’s Community Economic Justice Clinic.

Maria is also passionate about diversity and recruitment efforts. She served as the recruitment chair for La Alianza’s Law Student Association as well as an Admissions Ambassador at Berkeley Law. Now she is an active member of Orrick’s Latinx Attorneys inclusion network.

Maria was previously a summer associate at Orrick in 2020.

Brandon Sanders Of Counsel

San Francisco

Brandon is a corporate attorney in Orrick’s San Francisco office. He concentrates his practice on representing technology and other high growth companies and their investors. Brandon advises companies on day-to-day corporate and transactional matters throughout their growth lifecycle, from formation to early stage and growth stage financings to exit events, and everything in between. In addition, Brandon regularly represents leading private equity, venture capital and other institutional investors on growth, venture and structured equity investments, minority and majority recapitalizations, buyouts and other complex investment transactions. He also has significant experience representing clients in the cleantech and renewable energy industries on securities transactions and joint ventures.

Ravinder Sandhu Partner

London

Ravinder represents a wide range of clients in connection with large scale renewable (including onshore/offshore wind, solar and biomass) M&A, joint ventures, corporate restructurings and regulatory matters, as well as in respect of infrastructure and conventional energy assets. She is widely recognised as a leader in wind energy.

Ravinder is a member of Orrick’s Finance and Audit Committee, providing oversight of its financial reporting and audit process, its internal controls, and global compliance with laws and regulation.

Chanani Sandler Of Counsel

New York

Chanani advises multinational companies across all industry lines on a variety of employment-related matters and implementation of global equity compensation programs. He globally manages large multi-country and large multi-function HR projects.

From an employment law perspective, Chanani advises his clients on a wide range of employment-related matters outside the United States, including global/local offer letters and employment contracts, rollout of HR policies and employee handbooks as well as termination and settlement agreements. His work also covers advising clients hiring, HR data privacy compliance, discrimination risks, as well as performance management and terminations. He also works with his clients to consider the employment-related impact of, and undertake due diligence for, cross-border corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, spin-offs, and IPOs.

Chanani also counsels his clients on how to effectively design, implement, communicate and administer equity-based compensation programs and other long-term incentive awards to their employees and other service providers worldwide. His work covers securities law, foreign exchange, employment, tax and other compliance requirements related to these programs. He also provides services in the areas of corporate tax planning, cross-border tax planning, payroll support and employee education with respect to global equity programs, including in the context of corporate transactions.

He has presented at industry educational forums, such as the National Association of Stock Plan Professionals (NASPP) and Global Equity Organization (GEO), on topics related to tax compliance as well as effective design, implementation and administration of global equity-based awards and other long-term incentive plans.