Orrick Team Prevails in Long Court Fight to Preserve Approximately $4.5 Billion in Bay Area Transportation Funding

1 minute read
January.30.2023

Removing a significant legal roadblock to an estimated $4.5 billion in transportation funding for the San Francisco Bay Area, the California Supreme Court this week let stand a series of lower court decisions orchestrated by a cross-practice Orrick team through five years of litigation.

This action by California’s high court involves a challenge by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association to legislation and a voter-approved ballot measure providing for a $3 toll increase on seven state-owned toll bridges in the region to fund transportation projects to relieve traffic congestion.

Our team has led the successful defense of the legislation and ballot measure on behalf of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the Bay Area Toll Authority. This has included four favorable judgments in the trial courts, as well as the precedent-setting appeals court decision in 2020 which the state Supreme Court let stand this week.

The Orrick team has been led by partners Devin Brennan and Eric Shumsky, associate Max Carter-Oberstone, as well as partner Christine Reynolds, former partner Brian Goldman, of counsel Michael Weed and former associates Monica Haymond and Ethan Fallon.

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Devin Brennan Partner, Public Finance

San Francisco; Boston

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D:+1 415 773 4261
E: [email protected]

Practice:

Finance Sector
Public Finance

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Devin Brennan Partner

San Francisco; Boston

Such transactions have involved both long- and short-term, fixed and variable rate obligations, public-private partnerships (P3s), commercial paper, swaps, credit and liquidity enhancement, and revenue bonds for transportation and utility issuers, as well as a number of sizable special purpose financings. Devin has also represented multiple clients in connection with chapter 9 bankruptcies, restructurings and other workouts.

Devin is a partner in Orrick’s San Francisco office and chairs the Firm’s Transportation Finance Group. Devin has served on the Hiring and Summer Program Committees in the San Francisco office, and helps organize the firm's annual summer surf trip to Capitola Beach. Devin is a past Chair of the Bond Buyer's California Public Finance Conference, and is currently a member of the Strategy Council for OneJustice, an organization dedicated to transforming the delivery of legal services to Californians in need.

Eric Shumsky Partner, Supreme Court & Appellate, Intellectual Property

Washington, D.C.; San Francisco

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D:+1 202 339 8464
E: [email protected]

Practice:

Supreme Court & Appellate
Intellectual Property
Complex Litigation & Dispute Resolution

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Eric Shumsky Partner

Washington, D.C.; San Francisco

Chambers USA reports that Eric is “hailed as ‘highly intelligent, an effective communicator and a great writer’ by contacts, and his high-profile work in the tech patent sector is of particular interest to those who recognize him as one who ‘prepares meticulously, anticipates every question, and is a gifted orator.’” Legal 500 touts his “exceptional courtroom demeanor and presentation skills” as one of “the finest appellate litigators in the nation.” And Reuters, in a report reviewing some 17,000 practitioners, identified Eric as part of an “elite cadre” of 75 lawyers who are “the most influential members of one of the most powerful specialties in America: the business of practicing before the Supreme Court.”

Eric has served as appellate counsel to a who’s who of leading companies, including AT&T, DISH Network, Facebook, Genentech, Gilead, KPMG, LG Electronics, LinkedIn, Lyft, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Netflix, Norfolk Southern, Synopsys, Twitter, and Union Carbide. Across an array of industries, Eric has briefed and argued issues as diverse as patent and copyright, labor and employment, preemption, punitive damages, environmental law, national security, and foreign sovereign immunity. He has been a primary author of more than 100 briefs in the Supreme Court alone.

Eric has particular proficiency in matters of technology and intellectual property. He regularly litigates novel issues concerning the regulation of the internet, including CDA Section 230, computer fraud, takedown notices, and internet domain names. He has been counsel in dozens of patent appeals in the Federal Circuit—litigating patents ranging from semiconductor construction, computer architecture, and genetic sequencing to tobacco curing, keyboard trays, and electrical junction boxes. A former law clerk on the Ninth Circuit and the Central District of California, Eric has extensive experience in the California state and federal appellate courts where tech issues commonly arise.

In addition to traditional appellate work, Eric has years of experience developing legal strategy in high-profile and complex cases in trial courts. Eric has performed this role in high-stakes multi-district litigation, criminal trials, and civil litigation involving critical dispositive motions.

Prior to joining Orrick, Eric was a partner in the appellate group at Sidley Austin.

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