People

Sushila Nayak Partner

London; New York

She has a broad range of experience in debt financing transactions, including structured credit and corporate finance. She represents issuers, arrangers and collateral managers in connection with the issuance and restructuring of various structured finance products, derivatives transactions and debt issuances in Europe and the United States.

Sushila also provides counsel to technology and other companies on trade finance matters, including receivables financing arrangements, vendor financing, and supply chain financing.

Active in pro bono work, she leads the London office’s pro bono efforts.

Engagements:

Sushila's experience includes advising:

• Arrangers on European CLOs
• Issuers, arrangers and investors in connection with the warehousing and securitisation of various assets, including receivables, tax credits and loans
• Issuers, arrangers and investors on compliance with European risk retention requirements
• Borrowers and lenders on corporate bonds and private debt and bank lending transactions
• Corporates and lenders on supply chain, customer finance and receivables financing arrangements

Sushila's recent engagements include:

• Representing Morgan Stanley as arranger of the North Westerly V European CLO transaction
• Representing Enel Finance International N.V. and Enel S.p.A. in connection with the issuance of a $4 billion U.S. dollar sustainability linked bond
• Representing the purchaser in a cross-border private securitisation of diamond receivables
• Representing Millicom International Cellular S.A. on a $1.65 billion bridge loan
• Representing Millicom International Cellular S.A. in connection with its issuance of a $500 million bond issued under Rule 144A/Regulation S, and its $600 million tender and redemption of existing bonds

Zac Padgett Partner

Austin

Zac advises clients on:

• growth equity transactions
• buyout acquisitions and mergers
• venture capital investments
• exit transactions
• take-private deals
• management buyouts
• joint ventures
• private placements
• debt-like preferred equity and project finance investments

As co-lead of the firm’s Energy Tech Team, Zac focuses on supporting companies and investors developing technologies like hyperscale data centers, alternative fuels, carbon capture, eVTOL aircraft, agtech and digital infrastructure. Zac is a key member of Orrick's energy transition practice, which was recognized as Band 1 in Energy Transition by Chambers USA (2023).

Zac is passionate about legal tech and implementing AI tools to enhance legal services. He helps lead the firm’s MAPE 2.0 project team, a platform that transforms M&A execution, which won the Financial Times' Reinventing the Legal Practice category.

Jonathan Roheim Partner

Los Angeles; San Francisco

He is a trusted advisor to private equity real estate investors, funds and institutional lenders on their complex acquisitions, dispositions, financings and developments of office, multifamily, industrial, mixed-use, hotel and golf course properties.

Jon has a particular focus on complex real estate financings, including the origination of mezzanine debt, A/B tiered structures and loan on loan structures, including bridge loans, full construction loans and TI/LC and CapEx future funding facilities.

Jon serves as a relationship co-lead for one of Orrick’s top real estate clients, Walton Street Capital. He also works closely with leading real estate private equity investors, including Westbrook Partners, Cirrus Real Estate Partners and Hackman Capital Partners.

B. J. Rosen Partner

New York

B. J. is also the Senior Outside Legal Advisor to The Innocence Project, an organization dedicated to exonerating wrongly-convicted prisoners through DNA testing and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.

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.

Joseph C Santiesteban Partner

Seattle

He brings significant experience advising companies – from one of the largest telecommunications providers to leading entertainment companies to startups on the cutting-edge of AI and more – on the full cycle of an incident. He also advises companies and executives in connection to regulatory investigations, class actions, enforcement actions, and other disputes that frequently flow from privacy and cybersecurity incidents.

Joe helps clients respond quickly and with integrity to protect their brand, build trust and mitigate legal risk. He is highly skilled at directing incident investigations, analyzing potential claims and defenses, examining potential notification obligations and advising on effective communications strategies. He draws on this experience to help companies proactively prepare for an incident through creative strategies that foster engagement and collaboration between legal, security, communications and leadership teams. This includes building and improving incident response programs through response plans, simulated incidents, threat workshops, and training. In addition, Joe assists clients in practically evaluating the legal risk of security decisions in a variety of transactions and across the product lifecycle.

He also provides strategic advice to cybersecurity companies, including those looking to push technological and defense boundaries in cyber defense, incident response, and threat intelligence. This includes helping companies maximize their security offerings by navigating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), and the Federal Wiretap Act, as well as state law analogs.

Joe serves on Orrick’s Finance and Audit and Pro Bono Committees. A leader and advocate for diversity and inclusion initiatives, Joe is the co-head of Orrick’s Latinx Inclusion Network and was selected as a 2024 Rising Star by the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA). He was also named to Lawdragon's 2024 500 X Next Generation Rising Stars List and an Rising Star by the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA). He is a member of the Washington Latino Bar Association and the Hispanic National Bar Association.

Leah Sanzari Partner

New York

Having long represented issuers of asset backed securities and drawing on that experience, today, in addition to issuer representation, Leah’s practice includes a significant focus on investor-side representation. Leah represents both issuers and investors in complex deals of first impression and brings a unique, creative approach to securitization transactions, with deal execution as top priority.

Leah and her team have pioneered proved developed producing (PDP) oil & gas wellbore securitizations, acting as investor counsel on substantially all of the transactions that have been executed in the market to date. Also a pioneer of the C-PACE market, Leah regularly advises the top C-PACE issuers in both 144A and 4(a)(2) transactions, including Greenwork Lending’s first Rule 144A Commercial PACE securitization which was recognized as the 2022 Esoteric ABS Deal of the Year by GlobalCapital. Leah also advises on novel IP securitizations related to musical composition, sound recording copyrights, television and other royalties. Most recently, Leah represented the investors in the groundbreaking securitization by Syco Entertainment of intellectual property in the “Got Talent” franchise.

Leah’s experience further extends to a wide variety of other esoteric assets, including tax liens, diamond receivables, participations, tax credits, solar and wind ground leases and whole business operating company securitizations.

Recognized in Band 1 of Chambers USA Nationwide Securitization: PACE, Leah is described by clients as “one of the best lawyers that I have worked with” and someone who “fights tooth and nail for her clients.” Resources for the Legal 500 USA directory have called Leah “the best there is in esoteric financing products and bonds,” and note they are “incredibly impressed with the gender diversity on the team. Extremely ethical – name carries a lot of weight with investors.”

Kristin Seeger Partner

San Francisco

Her experience spans projects across the United States and Canada and includes award-winning transactions. She is recognized nationally as Chambers USA Band 2 for Projects: Power & Renewables: Transactional (2024) and as a Leading Lawyer: Energy-Renewable/Alternative Power by Legal 500.  Clients describe her as "very knowledgeable" with a "great sense of being practical and understanding what the drivers are on either side of the table." Kristin is a key member of Orrick's energy transition practice, which was recognized as Band 1 in Energy Transition by Chambers USA (2024).

Adam Smith Partner

London; Singapore

Evan Stergoulis Partner

London

Evan advises lenders, ECAs, institutional investors, renewable energy companies, investment firms and pension funds on financings, M&A, joint ventures and other strategic combinations. He brings considerable experience in wide range of renewable energy portfolio deals, as well as gas and power transmission and distribution projects and he has a market-leading offshore wind practice.

Chambers Global 2020 notes that clients say Evan is a “leading figure who has secured incredible and loyal clients because he does an excellent job.” He has also been named to The Lawyer’s Hot 100. and named to A Word About Wind's Top 100 Legal Power List.

Michael Tardif Partner

Singapore

Michael’s practice services a broad range of industry sectors, including conventional power, renewable energy (solar, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric), infrastructure, oil & gas and mining across Asia, Australia and the US. His project finance experience covers the complete toolkit of complex transactions from corporate and acquisition financing, structured/leveraged finance transactions and derivatives, including hedging arrangements.

Michael has notable experience in transactions involving multilateral lenders and export-credit agencies which are often crucial supporters of project financings in developing countries in the region.

Ranked in Band 1 in the Chambers Asia Pacific guide for Indonesia Projects & Energy lawyer for seven years in a row, Michael is also recognized as a “Leading Individual” by Legal 500 Asia Pacific.

Patrick Tardivy Partner

Paris

Patrick advises French and international companies and investors on all aspects of corporate law in the context of acquisitions, disposals, mergers, reorganizations, including business carveouts and strategic alliances.

Patrick is particularly active in the energy and infrastructure fields as well as the tech sectors, working alongside investment funds, French and foreign groups, on both domestic and cross border transactions. Patrick also has significant experience in M&A projects with a focus in the real estate sector where he acts as lead counsel on high-profile transactions.

Recognized by the major international ranking guides, Patrick is described by his clients as "[…] very good. He has a very good depth of technical skills but also good pragmatic vision" and "[his] business sense is exceptionally useful; he knows our business model and what we are capable of achieving. There is a mutual sense of trust." (Chambers Europe 2024 – Corporate/M&A: High-end Capability).

Prior to joining Orrick in 2016, Patrick was a partner in a Magic Circle law firm.