Yvette Williams Project Attorney

Wheeling, W.V. (GOIC)

Yvette works with litigation attorneys and third party vendors to manage the review and production of documents relevant to investigations and litigation. Yvette's work includes using early case assessment technology to analyze, categorize and cull data. She also manages teams of skilled professionals performing document review, redaction, analysis, production and drafting privilege logs. Yvette assists the litigation team to prepare for trial, including drafting deposition summaries, factual memoranda and exhibit charts. She also works with practice office attorneys on transactional tasks, including contract review and due diligence.

Prior to joining Orrick, Yvette clerked with Judge David R. Janes in the Sixteenth Judicial Circuit of West Virginia and was an associate at Bailey & Wyant in Wheeling, West Virginia.

Pia Baci Senior Associate

Santa Monica

Pia advises high-growth technology companies and venture capital firms in many areas, including venture financings, secondary transactions, corporate and securities law, governance matters, corporate formations, and day-to-day legal needs of executive teams. Pia represents companies and their investors across a variety of industries, including software, financial technology, consumer goods, aerospace, and life sciences.

While at Harvard Law School, Pia worked with a number of technology startups affiliated with the Harvard Innovation Lab and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Aviva M. Roth Senior Career Associate

Washington, D.C.

Aviva has experience in governmental and exempt facility bonds, including general governmental facilities, 501(c)(3) bonds, tobacco asset securitizations, capital funds financing, arbitrage and post-issuance compliance relating to private use issues.

Prior to joining Orrick, she was a docket attorney at the Internal Revenue Service Office of Chief Counsel where she drafted regulations, notices and private letter rulings.

William Berry Senior Counsel

San Francisco

William also has substantial experience with the employee benefit aspects of sales and acquisitions of businesses (including bankruptcy transactions), the restructuring of defined benefit pension plans, the defense of ERISA class action litigation, and public pension plan matters.

His clients include a wide range of large and medium-sized corporations, as well as individual and public clients. He also provides tax and retirement planning advice to many of Orrick's corporate clients.

William has been a frequent lecturer on employee benefits and related individual tax and fiduciary topics for the American Law Institute-American Bar Association; California Continuing Education of the Bar; the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans; the Practicing Law Institute; the Western Pension & Benefits Conference; various Bay Area Estate Planning Councils; and other organizations.

William became a senior counsel in 2013 after having been an Orrick partner since 1999.  Before joining Orrick, William was a partner at the law firm of Pillsbury Winthrop LLP in San Francisco.

Wendy Butler Curtis Chief Innovation Officer

Washington, D.C.

Named the "Most Innovative Lawyer of the Year" by Financial Times in 2018, Wendy is celebrated by clients for her “fresh thinking, legal nuance and practical understanding of the courts.” FT editors noted that “rarely have our panel of judges so quickly homed in on a top candidate for innovative individual.” As Orrick’s Chief Innovation Officer, Wendy leads Orrick’s efforts to operationalize innovation through novel products, streamlined processes, technology and client consulting on tailored solutions. These efforts have contributed to Orrick being named the Most Innovative Law Firm in North America by the Financial Times from 2016-2018 and seven consecutive years being in the top three. In 2018, The American Lawyer also honored Orrick with its first-ever Legal Services Innovation Award.

Wendy leads an innovation team of lawyers, technologists, developers, project managers and business professionals. FT notes that Wendy “understand[s] the diversity of roles that make a team great” and has “introduce[ed] many new technologies and delivery models that have transformed the way the firm operates and works with clients.” She is also recognized by Chambers as a leading individual, nationally, in the area of eDiscovery. Wendy is the chair of Orrick’s eDiscovery and Information Governance Group. She has been engaged by Fortune 100 companies and major financial institutions to create and deploy eDiscovery and records management programs. Wendy has substantial experience in pharmaceutical, product liability and class action litigation. Her litigation experience includes multiple trials, supervision of regional and local counsel, management of complex discovery and meet-and-confer negotiations.

Pierre de Boutiny Associate

Paris

He advises notably banks and sponsors on complex transactions for the financing of infrastructure projects, PPP, concessions and real estate portfolios, in France and abroad, as well as on debt restructuring.

Pierre regularly intervenes on the financing of PPP and concessions projects. He participates, in particular, in drafting complex agreements for the financing of public facilities (public buildings, ports and motorways, telecommunication grids and rolling stocks).

Pierre has also a significant track record in the real estate sector, advising both arrangers and borrowers on complex operations to finance buildings and property portfolio as well as their securitization aspects and restructuring.

Erin Pham Of Counsel

San Francisco

Erin's practice focuses on water, wastewater, public power, solid waste, airport and port financings, primarily in California and the territory of Guam. In addition, Erin has experience working on complex public-private-partnership (P3) transactions.

Erin also serves on the Board of Directors of the Asian Americans in Public Finance.

Amisha R. Patel Counsel

Washington, D.C.

She has advised clients across industries such as technology, pharmaceutical, finance, and consumer products.

Amisha partners with in-house counsel to devise and execute strategies that align with advancing their overall business goals. She has experience at all stages of litigation – including drafting pleadings and motions, successfully arguing motions, taking and defending depositions, preparing for trial, mediation, arbitration and settlement. She has represented clients in state and federal courts, and before the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and foreign competition authorities.

She has significant investigations experience, having represented senior executives and high-profile individuals in internal and government agency investigations – including the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Amisha previously taught at The George Washington University Law School as an adjunct professor in the Scholarly Writing Program. She maintains an active pro bono practice, representing clients in state and federal court and before the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. She has drafted cert-stage and amicus briefs in cases before the U.S. Supreme Court in the areas of immigration and affirmative action.

K. Patrick Herman Of Counsel

New York

Patrick's practice focuses on complex patent and other intellectual property matters. He has represented petitioners and patent owners in dozens of inter partes review proceedings relating to technologies such as automotive safety systems, catalytic materials, engine oil additives, and hard drive and other computer components.  Patrick also prosecutes patents before the USPTO in the chemical and material science fields.

In addition, Patrick has more than a decade of experience representing both plaintiffs and defendants in more traditional patent litigation. He has been involved in all phases of litigation, from developing initial strategy through appeal. Patrick has appeared in intellectual property cases before a variety of different federal district courts, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and the International Trade Commission. Applying his engineering background, he has represented clients in patent infringement litigations involving medical devices, pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals, automotive technologies, consumer electronics, and children’s toys.

Patrick's practice also extends to intellectual property counseling, including rendering opinions relating to patentability, infringement, validity, and freedom-to-operate issues, and the performance of patent diligence.

Karen Dempsey Senior Advisor

San Francisco

Karen is involved in a full range of corporate legal projects for high growth technology companies including venture financings, public offerings, public company securities law compliance matters and mergers and acquisitions. She also regularly advises public companies and board of directors on corporate governance issues. Karen's clients include private and public companies in the biotechnology, real estate, finance and Internet related industries. She also represents underwriters in initial public offerings and follow-on offerings and venture capital firms in investment transactions.

Karen is a frequent speaker on corporate and securities law topics including Initial Public Offerings, Corporate Governance and Sarbanes-Oxley matters. She is also Co-Editor of Part III of Venture Capital & Public Offering Negotiation, published by Aspen Law & Business.

Before joining Orrick, Karen was a shareholder at Heller Ehrman LLP and was chair of their firmwide corporate governance practice group.

Jason D. Flaherty Partner

San Francisco

Jason advises both public and private companies on compensation and benefits issues that arise in mergers and acquisitions, including pre-signing negotiations, executive and equity compensation and post-closing employee integration issues. Jason assists companies with compensation and benefit issues that arise with respect to their initial public offerings.

Jason's practice also focuses on counseling clients on all aspects of employee benefits related to the design, implementation, operation and any related fiduciary obligations with respect to tax-qualified retirement plans, including defined benefit and defined contribution plans, nonqualified deferred compensation arrangements with a particular focus on Code Section 409A compliance and employee welfare benefit plans, including compliance with HIPAA, COBRA and other health laws.

Prior to attending law school, Jason served as a Sergeant in the United States Army.

Katharine Crost Senior Counsel

New York

Kathy's practice involves advising issuers, underwriters, servicers and institutional purchasers on complex financial transactions. She has extensive experience with the securitization of a variety of assets, including mortgages, tax liens, tobacco litigation settlement funds, utility stranded costs and student loans.

Kathy's mortgage-backed experience has involved all types of mortgages including fixed and adjustable rate first lien mortgage loans, closed end seconds, revolving home equity lines of credit, seasoned mortgage loans, reverse mortgage loans and manufactured housing contracts. She has represented many types of financial institutions, including private companies, governmental agencies and municipalities.

She has been involved in the development of a number of novel securitization structures and programs designed to achieve the client's goals. In addition to securitizations, she has been involved in establishing joint ventures, financing of assets, acquisitions of assets and litigation support and advice.

Recently, Kathy has been involved in advising clients on a number of innovative transactions that address issues arising from the financial crisis and housing and financial regulatory reform. Representative transactions include representing the sponsor and issuer of the first public offerings of private label residential mortgage-backed securities since the advent of the financial crisis, advising a federal agency on the securitization of seasoned assets, and advising the largest issuer of tax lien securitizations. She has also been involved in various initiatives to address regulatory reform proposals.

Kathy is former Chair of the Structured Finance Group. She has also served on the Firm's Executive Committee and as Chair of the Firm's Women's Initiative.