People

Jake Wyrick Of Counsel

San Francisco

Jake counsels companies throughout their lifecycles on matters including incorporation, debt and equity financings, corporate governance, securities law compliance, secondary sales, mergers and acquisitions and capital markets transactions. He also advises venture capital and strategic corporate investors on a range of direct and secondary investments.

Mr. Wyrick also has experience advising companies on complex technology transactions involving the creation and commercialization of technology, including licensing, joint development, manufacturing and distribution. While seconded to a venture-backed networking company, he negotiated key licensing agreements and oversaw commercial contract matters.

Prior to joining Orrick, Jake worked as an attorney at prominent Silicon Valley law firms, and he was also a legal intern at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, where he focused on technology-related appellate litigation and policy. He began advising early-stage companies during law school while working as a summer associate at a law firm in Tokyo and as a student attorney at Duke University School of Law’s Startup Ventures Clinic.

Sean Yates Senior Associate

San Francisco; Sacramento

Sean serves as bond counsel, disclosure counsel, and underwriter's counsel on a variety of public finance transactions, including general obligation and revenue bond financings.  Sean's experience includes counseling large public transportation agencies, and assisting in the financing of affordable housing, charter schools and higher education institutions throughout California.

Sean earned his J.D. from the University of California, Davis in 2018, and his B.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2013. 

Shannon Yavorsky Partner

San Francisco; London

She advises public and private companies across several sectors, including life sciences and health technology, financial services, private equity, insurance, social media and technology on a range of EU and U.S. federal and state privacy laws. Shannon’s strategic counseling advice includes, but is not limited to:

• Advertising and payment card processing self-regulatory frameworks
• Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM)
• Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA)
• EU AI Act
• EU e-Privacy Directive (EPD)
• EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
• Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)
• Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act (GLBA)
• Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
• National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) AI Risk Management Framework (AIRMF)
• Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA)
• U.S. state breach notification laws
• U.S. state privacy laws in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, Virginia and other states
  

Shannon also helps clients undertake comprehensive privacy, cybersecurity and AI risk assessments, evaluates privacy, security and AI risks in corporate transactions and drafts and negotiates data-related contracts. She advises clients on cross-border data transfers, data breaches and developing global privacy and AI compliance programs.

Daniel Yost Partner

San Francisco; Silicon Valley

Highly regarded for his expertise, Chambers USA has ranked Daniel for his expertise in Technology Transactions and noted that “His work is solution-driven and his positive personality helps both sides of a negotiation work towards the outcome.” Legal 500 describes his practice as “exceptional” and recommends the practice for its “high client service ethic and great commercial awareness." He is known for his ability to handle complex transactions for science-based technology companies, with work ranging from intellectual property and licensing to distribution agreements and cross-border collaborations, counseling clients on commercial law, copyright, licensing, marketing, patent, privacy, strategic alliances, trademark and trade secrets matters.

Daniel has represented companies in various industries, including biotechnology, cleantech, energy, consumer electronics, entertainment, hardware, internet, media, semiconductor, services, software, telecommunications and wireless. His energy clients include clients in the solar, biofuels, waste to energy and geothermal sectors.

Daniel has acted as key legal counsel in:

• Manufacturing, distribution and sale arrangements for makers of software, chips, security devices, batteries and solar technologies, among others.
• Technology transactions with universities, governments and non-profit entities.
• Copyright, privacy and online pitfalls applicable to Internet companies.
• Domestic and international collaborations for developers of pharmaceutical products, medical devices, semiconductors and software, among others.
• Mergers, acquisitions, spin-offs and asset divestitures in a wide range of industries, including biotechnology, health databases, semiconductors medical software, entertainment, Internet browsers and e-commerce.
• Open software source policy development and compliance.
• IT and business process services agreements.
• Venture capital investments in technology-based enterprises.

The former co-chair of both the Technology Transactions and Technology Companies Practice Groups, Daniel is a thought leader on technology transactions issues and programs that focus on the protection and exploitation of intellectual property, having advised on clients such as Weta Digital, Fulcrum BioEnergy, CelLink Corporation, Telenor, Luminar, and Motorola Solutions. He is regularly called up to speak about intellectual property and technology matters and has done so at UC Berkeley, Stanford and other universities and conferences. His work on incentivizing innovation has been published in major papers, including Forbes, the Daily Journal San Francisco and the San Jose Mercury News.

Daniel’s current volunteer work includes serving on the Board of Joint Venture Silicon Valley, the Advisory Counsel for UC Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment and California Environmental Voters. Daniel also advises state and local elected officials on policies to encourage the development and deployment of zero emissions technologies. Daniel’s prior volunteer work includes serving as Mayor and Councilmember in Woodside, California and serving as a founding Board Member of Peninsula Clean Energy – the community choice energy provider serving San Mateo County.

Harold Yu Partner

Silicon Valley; San Francisco

Harold advises technology companies and has significant experience with venture capital financings, debt financings, public offerings, mergers & acquisitions and technology transactions. He is deeply interested in technology. Prior to law school, Harold was a software engineer at Oracle Corporation and an intern at NASA Ames Research Center.

Jason Yu Partner

Silicon Valley

Jason has represented technology companies in multiple venues, including various state and federal courts, the International Trade Commission, and the Patent and Trademark office. His matters span different technological areas including, Information Technology, satellite communications, semiconductor manufacturing, circuit design and verification tools, image texture and graphics processing, gaming, and a variety of software products.

Yuanjia (Gina) Zhang Patent Agent

Silicon Valley

Dr. Yuanjia (Gina) Zhang, a patent agent in the Silicon Valley office, is a member of the Intellectual Property Group.  As a patent agent, Dr. Zhang performs tasks related to patent prosecution including preparing and prosecuting patent applications. 

Dr. Zhang has broad technical background and experience in materials science and engineering, electronic devices, nanotechnology, and printing technology.  In particular, her technical areas include nanofabrication, semiconductors, organic electronics, molecular electronics, optoelectronics, electrophotography, inkjet printing, surface engineering, color science, and image processing.

Prior to joining Orrick, Dr. Zhang worked at Anova Law Group, where she prepared and prosecuted patent applications for large Chinese companies and prestigious universities, in industrial areas including Internet technology and semiconductor devices.  Before joining Anova Law Group, Dr. Zhang was a member of research staff in Xerox Innovation Group at Xerox Corporation.  Dr. Zhang also has prior industrial experiences at IBM T.J. Watson Research Center and Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation, in Shanghai, China.  Dr. Zhang’s doctoral research focused on the electronic charge injection and transport in nanoscale organic thin film transistors.

Dr. Zhang has technical publications in journals including Advanced Materials and Journal of Applied Physics.  Dr. Zhang is also an inventor with six U.S. patents granted and other U.S. and foreign patent applications pending.

Sharon Zhou Associate

San Francisco

Mitchell Zuklie Orrick Chairman

Silicon Valley

Under Mitch’s leadership, the firm has pursued a strategy to be a leading advisor globally to four sectors: Technology, Energy & Infrastructure, Life Sciences and Financial Services – with a particular focus on how AI and other technologies are transforming these ecosystems. He has led the firm’s emphasis on legal innovation, including AI adoption, the launch of Orrick Labs to develop customized solutions and partnerships with leading legal tech companies and investors. Financial Times has chosen Orrick among the top 3 Most Innovative Law Firm in North America for the past eight years. In addition, Mitch is an active participant in the legal profession dialog about how to retain and inspire top talent.  Fortune has selected the firm among the 100 Best Companies to Work For nine years in a row.

Mitch serves on the Boards of the Leadership Council for Legal Diversity, the Berkeley Center for Law and Business, the Silicon Valley Law Foundation and the Advisory Boards of the Stanford Law School Center on the Legal Profession and the Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession. Mitch is also a Trustee of Bowdoin College, Chairman of the Board of the Wild Salmon Center and a Director of CalTrout.

He and his wife, Holly, have been married for more than 30 years. They have two adult children. Mitch posts regularly on social media about Orrick, innovation and other interests. Follow him on LinkedIn, X and Instagram.