Washington, D.C.
Ed Williams assists clients with complex matters focusing primarily on litigation in appellate tribunals, including the United States Supreme Court, and challenging legal issues at trial. Clients have relied on Ed’s exceptional knowledge to navigate class action lawsuits, certiorari and merits stage briefs before the United States Supreme Court, contract disputes, trade secrets misappropriation matters, and complex litigation matters that defy traditional categories.
Washington, D.C.
Jay has represented clients before the Department of Justice (DOJ), Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) and other state regulators, including state attorneys general. He is focused on the compliance issues surrounding government-insured mortgages and other credit products and works with his clients to conduct compliance and consumer protection reviews to mitigate risk.
Jay has extensive experience assisting clients in matters involving complex electronic discovery issues, such as large-scale document collection, developing effective document retention policies and using cutting-edge technology (including artificial intelligence) to reduce review and production costs.
Active in pro bono work, Jay has represented clients before the U.S. Parole Commission and handled multiple matters with the Washington Lawyers’ Committee. He is a current board member of the Interfaith Action for Human Rights, was a founding board member of the Greater D.C. Diaper Bank, and coaches Capitol Hill Little League baseball teams.
Prior to joining Orrick, Jay was a partner at Buckley LLP. He also was a litigation associate at Venable LLP, where he represented clients in complex commercial litigation and arbitration. During law school, he served as a clerk in the Office of the Public Defender in Montgomery County, Maryland.
London
Simon has wide experience of acting for major financial institutions, companies and professional firms in complex litigation, investigations and proceedings by domestic and overseas regulators, professional disciplinary proceedings, ad hoc governmental inquiries and internal investigations. In particular he has acted for those subject to investigations by a wide range of regulatory bodies including the Financial Reporting Council, the Financial Conduct Authority, the Prudential Regulation Authority, the Serious Fraud Office, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board and others. He has considerable experience of advising clients on risk management and reputational risk arising from contentious matters.
Simon has been recognised in the Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners as: “an outstanding litigation solicitor”, who is “highly experienced in conducting heavy litigation”, and “one of the best lawyers operating in the Accountant’s liability space”. His clients describe him as “tactically astute and painstaking" and “tough, hardworking, well informed and highly tactical in his thinking.” with a “winning combination of legal knowledge and practicality”.
London
Julia often works on cases with a multijurisdictional focus and has represented clients from the UK, Italy, Canada and Mexico in disputes seated around the world. She has worked on arbitrations overseen by most of the major arbitral forums including ICC, LCIA and UNCITRAL and governed by the laws of numerous countries, including England and Wales, US (New York) and Mozambique. She also acts for sovereign states in actions brought against them by private investors. Her practice represents clients in all stages of disputes – from pleadings to trial including advising in relation to alternative dispute resolution methods.
Julia has published articles on arbitration matters, including the upcoming reform to the English Arbitration Act 1996.
San Francisco
Ariel represents companies and individuals in a broad range of civil and criminal matters, including government enforcement and regulatory investigations, internal investigations, securities class actions, and shareholder derivative actions.
Ariel also maintains an active pro bono practice focused on immigration and civil rights matters.
Houston
Blake is recognized both nationally and globally by Chambers (Chambers USA and Chambers Global 2008-2024), including in Band 1 for Projects: Power & Renewables: Transactional, Projects. Chambers sources report that he has "strong commercial acumen, executive presence and excellent, long-standing stature." Blake is also recognized in the "Hall of Fame" for Energy Transactions: Electric Power by Legal 500 and has been named one of the "world’s leading energy and natural resources lawyers" by Euromoney (2009-2020).
Blake advises clients on energy sector mergers, acquisitions, dispositions, and joint ventures, and on the development, structuring, and financing of large-scale energy projects in the United States and internationally. He regularly represents multinational energy companies, large private equity funds, project developers and sponsors, borrowers and debt issuers, investment banks, and other capital providers and investors in the energy industry.
Blake has significant experience in the electric power sector, including fossil fuel-fired, simple and combined-cycle and co-generation facilities, as well as wind, solar (central station and distributed), landfill gas, biomass and other renewable energy projects. He also represents clients in transactions involving oil, natural-gas and refined-products pipelines, gathering and processing systems and storage facilities (tank farms and underground), exploration and production investment platforms and operations, electric power and natural gas transmission and local distribution systems and alternative fuels production and marketing arrangements.
New York
Kasey represents tech startups throughout all stages of their lifecycle. She advises on formation, general corporate and governance matters, and a broad range of transactions, such as venture capital financings, mergers and acquisitions. Kasey also advises venture capital investors on investment in their portfolio companies.
Prior to joining Orrick, Kasey was an associate in the Emerging Companies and Venture Capital Group at Fox Rothschild LLP in New York.
Washington, D.C.
Jill maintains an active pro bono practice that includes assisting inmates with post-conviction relief. She has also co-authored U.S. Supreme Court amicus briefs in support of a criminal defendant at both the certiorari and merits stages.
Prior to joining Orrick, Jill was an associate at Buckley LLP. She previously clerked for the Honorable Harvey Bartle, III in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Washington, D.C.
Chris has an active practice representing financial services entities in negotiating a wide variety of corporate transactions, including company M&A, asset purchases and critical vendor and other third-party relationships. His clients include banks, mortgage companies and servicers, marketplace and other lenders, fintech and emerging payments providers and other business entities in the financial services industry.
Chris’ M&A work emphasizes transactions that involve regulatory risks and concerns or novel structures at the forefront of industry trends. He also represents buyers and sellers of mortgage loans and other consumer lending assets, including interests such as mortgage servicing rights. He regularly negotiates many varieties of servicing and subservicing contracts.
He also advises clients on outsourcing, joint venture and bank partner agreements, particularly in the fintech and e-commerce arena, providing years of experience addressing “true lender” issues. He also advises clients on loan repurchase and indemnity matters as well as corporate governance and compliance matters.
His regulatory practice focuses on advising lenders and servicers on matters involving the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), including affiliated business arrangements, portfolio retention transactions and vendor management issues.
Chris is recognized by Chambers USA for Fintech: Payments & Lending, which cited his capabilities “advising on regulatory compliance, commercial contracts matters and transactional work, with notable expertise handling M&A in the financial services sector.”
He was previously Co-Managing Partner and a member of the partner board at Buckley LLP. Before attending law school, he worked at the U.S. Department of State.
London
Alexander has represented Latin American and Eastern European States in a variety of claims under domestic and international law, including high-profile and politically sensitive investment treaty cases (often involving issues of corruption). In addition to his international arbitration experience, Alexander frequently advises clients on financial sanctions and export control issues across a range of sectors including oil & gas, infrastructure, and defence. He is fluent in Spanish and has a good command of German. Alexander also speaks and writes on international arbitration related subjects.
San Francisco
San Francisco
George is also a long-time member of the Public Finance Tax Group, specializing in public power and health care, and is the leading national authority on municipal derivative products. He is principal tax advisor to several major municipal electric utilities and nonprofit healthcare organizations. He also has extensive experience in working with leading banks in creating new financial products, including secondary market synthetic instruments, contingent payment debt instruments, financing strategies for energy, as well as defending the taxation of financial transactions before taxing authorities.
George also has substantial experience defending the tax integrity of financing arrangements in particular as well as tax litigation in general.
Seattle
John is consistently recognized in The Best Lawyers in America and recommended by The Legal 500 United States as a white collar criminal defense lawyer. John relies upon a multi-disciplinary crisis management strategy to assist clients and address both legal and reputational risks.
John has extensive experience representing clients in federal and state criminal and civil investigations, including state attorney general investigations, related to alleged health care fraud and standards of care violations resulting in death, consumer protection violations, public corruption and campaign finance violations, environmental violations (both land-based and maritime), including catastrophic industrial accident response and investigations, cybersecurity investigations and securities and tax fraud, including money laundering. John is an accomplished and seasoned trial lawyer who has represented public and private clients in more than 100 jury trials, and appeared in state and federal proceedings throughout the Pacific Northwest, as well as California, Florida, Montana, New York, and Wyoming.
Honors:
In 2004, John chaired the Magistrate Selection Committee for the Federal District Court in the Western District of Washington. He has also served on several Merit Selection panels identifying candidates for appointment to the federal bench in the Western District of Washington. He is currently co-chair of the Federal Appointments Committee for the Federal Bar Association and has served as a Ninth Circuit Representative. He was once appointed to serve as a Special Master in a matter pending before the Federal District Court in the Western District of Washington to investigate issues related to a multi-party joint defense agreement.