People

Walter Alarkon Senior Associate

New York

He advises sponsors, debt providers and equity investors in financings and acquisitions of renewable power, conventional power, telecom and other infrastructure assets.  

As a 2021 Orrick Racial Justice Fellow, he served as in-house financing counsel for non-profit Common Future, helping structure the non-profit's novel Character-Based Lending Fund to provide capital to entrepreneurs in diverse communities. He has also counseled on a pro-bono basis social impact startups focused on healthcare and energy efficiency.

Prior to joining Orrick, Walter was a reporter for the Concord Monitor in New Hampshire and The Hill in Washington, D.C., and an editorial page contributor for The Boston Globe. He collaborated with authors on two books, “The New New Deal: The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era,” by Michael Grunwald (Simon & Schuster, 2012), a New York Times bestseller and an Economist book of the year, and “Long Mile Home: Boston Under Attack, the City’s Courageous Recovery, and the Epic Hunt for Justice,” by Scott Helman and Jenna Russell (Penguin, 2014).

Lauren Allen-Yang Managing Associate

New York

Lauren has experience representing individuals and large companies at all stages of complex civil litigation, from fact-finding to motion practice and everything in between. Lauren practices in federal and state courts nationwide.

Robert Allsbrook Of Counsel

New York

Colby has deep experience in financial services, asset-backed security and mortgage-related litigation, and has been at the forefront of litigation arising out of the financial crisis.

Prior to joining Orrick, he was a Director and senior litigation counsel at Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, where he chaired the firm's Mortgage Securities Litigation Task Force and helped direct the bank's litigation response to the mortgage crisis. He previously practiced law in the New York offices of King & Spalding and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft.

Margaret Anderson Senior Associate

New York

Margaret represents companies and individuals in high-stakes litigation in federal and state courts nationwide. She has extensive experience in all stages of litigation, from pre-suit demands through the conclusion of the appellate process.

John Ansbro Partner

New York

John litigates a wide range of commercial disputes, including financial services litigations involving RMBS, disputes in the wind and solar power industries across a host of contractual issues, construction disputes, long-term take-or-pay and liquidated damages disputes, force majeure, bankruptcy litigation, insurance recovery, and commercial real estate foreclosure. He was also an arbitrator on an ICC International Court of Arbitration panel in a cross-border industrial contract dispute.

COVID-19’s unprecedented global market impact has clients across an array of industries seeking John’s counsel on force majeure and related breach of contract disputes. These include force majeure matters across jurisdictions and industries, including Energy & Infrastructure, Pharmaceuticals, Financial Services, Real Estate, Hospitality, and Retail.

John litigates significant, high stakes matters. For example, in 2017 on behalf of his client Hemlock Semiconductor Corp., in a case of first impression in Michigan, on appeal John won the dismissal of an attempt by a Japanese conglomerate to avoid $1.4 billion in purchase obligations on the theory that alleged acts by the Chinese Government constituted an “act of government” under the parties’ force majeure provision. The Michigan Bar Journal declared it one of the top 10 business cases of 2010-2019. In 2019, one of the very few RMBS actions to be tried, John was trial counsel for Credit Suisse Securities USA in a $700 million dispute in the Supreme Court of New York. At trial he handled the defense expert in the critical area of loan underwriting.

Prior to joining Orrick, John was a Litigation Associate at Donovan Leisure Newton & Irvine LLP.

John Azzopardi Managing Associate

New York

John Azzopardi is a Managing Associate in the Energy and Infrastructure team in Orrick’s New York office. His practice focuses on project finance and development transactions, with a focus on renewable energy. Since joining Orrick, John has advised sponsors on the financing of greenfield solar energy projects, navigating complex legal and commercial issues to achieve successful outcomes.

With a career spanning global law firms and senior in-house roles, John has developed deep expertise in drafting and negotiating finance documents and structuring cross-border transactions. His experience includes acting for both sponsors and lenders across a range of sectors.

John earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Melbourne and a Bachelor of Business from Monash University and is admitted to practice in New York and Victoria, Australia.

Laura Bagarella Partner

New York

Laura’s practice focuses on the executive compensation and employee benefits aspects of domestic and cross-border public and private mergers and acquisitions, spin-offs, divestitures, IPOs, minority investments and other corporate transactions. She also regularly advises on the design, taxation, disclosure, negotiation, implementation and ongoing administration of equity and cash incentive programs, deferred compensation plans, severance and other change in control and retention arrangements for both public and private companies, including private equity backed companies. In addition, Laura routinely represents companies and executives in the negotiation of employment, consulting, separation, and other compensation arrangements.

Before joining the firm, Laura practiced at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP.

Samir R. Bakhru Partner

New York

Samir has represented early and late stage companies in over $7 billion worth of venture financings and has advised clients in over $5 billion worth of M&A transactions.  He has experience in advising founders on structuring their companies to maintain control and frequently counsels executive teams in maintaining and managing a successful board of directors.  

Samir’s notable company-side representations include K Health, Dataiku, Beacon Platform, Betterment, Chime, Vise Technologies, Warby Parker, Codecademy, Merama, Genius, ResearchGate, Spell, Frontier Car Group (until sold), Insomnia Cookies (until sold), Sailthru (until sold), Teachable (until sold), and Upworthy (until sold), among others.

In addition to his company-side representations, Samir has represented leading venture capital firms and other strategic investors, including Bessemer Venture Partners, Charles River Ventures, Coatue Management, Heavybit Industries, TPG Growth, Vista Equity Partners, Walden Venture Capital, Warburg Pincus, and Y Combinator Continuity Fund.

Before joining Orrick, Samir was an Associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP in the General Corporate and M&A group.

Julien Barbey Senior Associate

New York

Julien advises startup clients as general outside corporate counsel assisting companies with all their legal needs including convertible note, debt and SAFE financings, preferred stock financings, employee equity and corporate governance. He has a broad range of corporate experience including company counsel to public companies, private equity acquisitions, preferred stock financings, mergers, joint ventures and commercial contract drafting.

Prior to focusing his practice on startups, Julien practiced mergers and acquisitions law which gives him added insight into positioning companies for a successful exit. Julien also worked as an in-house attorney at a late stage start-up which gives him added insight into the business needs of his clients.

Janet Barbiere Partner

New York

She represents banks, investment banks and other financial institutions in their roles as issuers, underwriters, placement agents, originators, loan sellers and investors in commercial mortgage loan and mezzanine loan securitizations, real estate syndications, origination and servicing programs, the acquisition and sale of interests in mortgage loans, mortgage securities, subordinated debt and mezzanine debt, as well as transactions in the secondary mortgage market.

She has advised banks and other financial institutions in analyzing and structuring a broad array of traditional and unique CMBS transactions, in the restructuring and sale of performing and non-performing commercial mortgage loans, and in connection with CMBS re-securitizations and CRE CLO securitizations. She serves on various SFIG and CREFC Committees.

Prior to joining Orrick, Janet was a partner in the New York offices of Kaye Scholer LLP, Thacher Proffitt & Wood LLP and Sidley Austin LLP.

Alyssa Barnard-Yanni Senior Associate

New York

Her litigation work spans a wide range of subject areas, from complex commercial litigation to white collar criminal defense.  

At the trial level, Alyssa has drafted innumerable dispositive and evidentiary motions, served on criminal defense teams representing individual defendants from indictment through sentencing, and argued in both state and federal trial court.  At the appellate level, Alyssa has drafted filings of every stripe--writs of mandamus, petitions for discretionary review, amicus briefs, and of course merits appeals--and presented argument in state and federal courts of appeals.  Alyssa also advises clients on thorny issues outside of litigation, ranging from drafting white papers advocating against criminal charges to brainstorming ways to terminate a licensing agreement, and more.

Alyssa maintains an active pro bono practice focusing primarily on criminal law matters.  She recently secured reversal of an attempted robbery conviction based on insufficient evidence in the New York Appellate Division.  She has represented defendants in state-court appeals and petitioners for habeas relief in federal court; drafted cert- and merits-stage amicus briefs in the Supreme Court case Quarles v. United States; and co-drafted an amicus brief to the Second Circuit urging that failure to advise naturalized citizens of the denaturalization risks of a plea violates the Sixth Amendment.

Alyssa served as a law clerk to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the October 2019 Term. Before that, she clerked for Judge Alison J. Nathan on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and Judge Robert A. Katzmann on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Lauren Baron Associate

New York

Lauren is experienced with motion practice in federal district courts and state courts throughout New York, California, Texas, Delaware, and other jurisdictions. She has a broad base of scientific knowledge and focuses in patent practice dealing with networked technologies and biomedical engineering. Lauren also practices trade secrets law and drafts motions for cases brought under the Defend Trade Secrets Act, New York common law, and the California Uniform Trade Secrets Act.

Prior to joining Orrick, Lauren attended Columbia Law School, where she participated extensively in the Columbia Science, Health, and Information Clinic and the Columbia Science and Technology Law Review.