People

William S. Haft Partner

New York

Bill regularly advises clients on cross-border matters, including transactions in the maritime, energy and infrastructure and technology sectors. He has particular experience in the maritime sector, having guided various market participants on numerous complex international shipping and offshore corporate and capital markets deals and restructurings.

Reflecting feedback from his clients, Bill was named a BTI “Client Service All-Star” and is described by an IFLR1000 client commentator as “extremely responsive” with a “deep spectrum of knowledge,” in Banking and Finance.

Siobhan Handley Chief Talent Officer

New York

In collaboration with the firm’s leadership team, she focuses on designing and implementing programs to recruit, inspire and advance the best legal and staff talent.

Siobhan previously served as Orrick’s Managing Director for Resources. In that role, she spearheaded the development of the firm’s innovative talent model—the first of its kind in a major law firm—which replaces the traditional associate lockstep advancement system with merit-based advancement. As chair of the firm’s Talent Committee, she oversees Orrick’s lawyer training and performance feedback program – which is one of the most rigorous in the market. She also has led the creation of a range of new lawyer and professional staff roles.

Siobhan brings to this role extensive experience on the front line of client service, having been a partner in the firm’s product liability litigation and mass tort defense group. For more than a decade, she was a member of the Orrick team that acted as National Counsel to Union Carbide Corporation in connection with asbestos-related personal injury lawsuits and served as lead trial counsel in cases across the country. Siobhan was one of the key trial counsel in the highly-publicized landmark trial in Texas State Court, Brazoria County, where Kelly-Moore Paint Company sued Union Carbide for $1.4 billion in compensatory damages and $4.2 billion in punitive damages that resulted in a complete defense verdict. In addition, she served as trial counsel for significant product liability cases for other clients including Wyeth and Flexible Products.

Eileen Heitzler Partner

New York

As bond counsel, underwriters’ counsel, borrower’s counsel and credit enhancer’s counsel, Eileen has worked on deals ranging from a few million dollars in value to more than $1 billion. She has broad experience with all types of financing structures including fixed rate, variable rate, flexible rate and optional tender bonds; tax-exempt and taxable debt; general obligation and revenue bond financings; unsecured obligations, mortgage-secured and project-based security; synthetic structures involving derivative products; and master trust indenture structures. Marketing alternatives have included public offerings by governmental issuers or conduit issuers, taxable bonds issued directly by non-profit organizations, direct placements with banks and financial institutions, and private placements. She was ranked Band 1 by Chambers USA New York for Public Finance in 2022.

While Eileen's practice encompasses all types of financings, her areas of concentration are financings for not-for-profit organizations, affordable housing, governmental purposes and public power projects. She has also participated in helping to structure and develop special financing programs.

Museums and Cultural Institutions: Referred to as the “bond artist” by the American Lawyer in connection with her work on the Museum of Modern Art expansion financing through the Trust for Cultural Resources, Eileen has been involved in transactions for most of the cultural institutions in New York City.

Educational Institutions and Other Non-Profit Organizations: Eileen has served as institution counsel, bond counsel or underwriter’s counsel on transactions to finance projects for a multitude of colleges, universities, health care organizations, private schools and other not-for-profit corporations, often in connection with their initial financings.

Affordable Housing: Financing the construction or preservation of thousands of affordable housing units has been an important facet of Eileen’s practice. In addition to serving as bond counsel or underwriters’ counsel on 80-20 developments, she is involved with the pooled open resolution programs established by the New York City Housing Development Corporation and the New York State Housing Finance Agency (two of the largest housing bond issuers in the country).

Governmental Purpose Bonds: As special counsel to the Office of the State Comptroller, Eileen provides advice concerning the issuance of the State’s general obligation bonds as well as other issues. She has also participated in the issuance of State-supported bonds by several public benefit corporations including the Dormitory Authority and Empire State Development.

Public Power: Eileen has worked with the Bonneville Power Administration for over 25 years on a range of financing programs, including on power purchases (including nuclear power), lease-purchase financings, energy prepayments, and conservation.

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.

Ned Hirschfeld Senior Associate

New York

Ned focuses on appellate litigation. He has authored successful merits briefs and petitions for certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as dozens of briefs in federal and state appellate courts. Ned's work has covered a wide range of subject areas, including patent, constitutional law, and complex commercial litigation.  He has also counseled Fintech clients on novel issues confronting the industry.

Ned maintains an active pro bono practice focused on immigration and criminal justice matters, including a successful appeal in the Second Circuit that vacated an arbitrary change to the meaning of "moral turpitude" under the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Prior to joining Orrick, Ned served as a law clerk to Judge Robert Sack of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Judge Kimba Wood of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.  During law school, he served as an Articles Editor for the Yale Law Journal.

Kar Ho Of Counsel

New York

Eric Hochstadt Partner

New York

Major players across technology, life sciences, financial services, retail, sports and transportation hire Eric again and again. Chambers USA describes him as "one of the foremost experts in antitrust law," praised for his creativity and practical approach. Clients commend him as a "really good trial lawyer," who is "skilled, savvy, and practical.” Lawdragon names him among the 500 "Leading Litigators in America."

Eric has played a pivotal role in shaping modern antitrust law through his involvement in significant cases challenging important business or industry-wide practices and transformational acquisitions. This has ranged from securing a complete defense verdict in the rare antitrust jury trial attacking an asset swap transaction – a case American Lawyer dubbed “An Antitrust Unicorn — With $800M on the Line”; to defeating a government merger challenge based on the novel “potential competition” theory that a “Big Tech” firm should enter a new market by “building versus buying”; to upholding a private equity firm’s ability to do “joint bids” for investment opportunities; to securing the dismissal of an alleged “no poach” class action by avoiding automatic or per se scrutiny of a distribution arrangement at the outset of the lawsuit – a win highlighted in American Lawyer’s “Litigator of the Week” column; to achieving a landmark class action settlement against a copyright collective with 20 years of licensing and royalty rate-setting conduct relief after regulators declined to bring an enforcement action. This work often involves the testimony of C-suite witnesses, opinions of leading economic experts, and the intersection of antitrust law with employment and intellectual property laws.

A member of the Executive Committee of the Antitrust Section of the New York State Bar Association, Eric speaks regularly before antitrust bar associations and at PLI and GCR programs.

Evan C. Hollander Partner

New York

Evan Hollander has over 25 years of experience representing debtors, secured creditors, holders of fulcrum securities, distressed asset acquirers, and independent directors in complex U.S. and cross-border restructuring matters. Mr. Hollander is equally comfortable in the courtroom as he is at the negotiating table and the boardroom, and has extensive experience crafting and implementing restructuring plans. He frequently writes on insolvency related topics and routinely appears on panels at industry conferences.

R. David Hosp Partner

Boston; New York

David brings creativity and determination to all of the matters he handles, whether they involve issues that are novel and complex or more traditional. He has tried matters to both juries and judges, and prepares every one of his cases with the assumption that the matter will be tried to verdict. That attention to preparation often leads to positive results before trial in favorable settlements or rulings on motions to dismiss or on summary judgment, which saves clients time and expense.

Throughout his career, David has been involved in some of the most widely followed cases in the area of trademark, copyright, and media law. For example, David:

• Represents inventors of AI technology in connection with class action copyright claims brought by copyright owners against Databricks related to training of LLMs.
• Advises AI technology companies with respect to litigation risks and potential copyright and Lanham Act claims
• Represents Altice in defending cases brought by the music industry alleging secondary liability for subscribers’ alleged infringement of musical works utilizing BitTorrent on Altice’s internet platforms;
• Represents the University of Washington in defense of First Amendment claims brought by a professor where UW was recently granted summary judgment on all claims;
• Recently represented UW in successful defense of defamation claims brought by Project Veritas over debunking of 2020 election interference reports;
• Recently represented blockchain company partnered with Quentin Tarantino in successful defense of first-impression copyright and trademark claims brought by Miramax over the creation and sale of NFTs involving the hand-written script for the motion picture Pulp Fiction;
• Represented Samsung in successful defense and settlement of trademark and unfair competition claims brought in the Southern District of New York regarding Samsung’s MILK music streaming service;
• Represented Microsoft in successful defense and settlement of copyright claims filed in the Southern District of New York by Getty Images, Inc. related to the operation of Bing search engine;
• Represented New Balance at trial in the International Trade Commission in the successful defense of trade dress claims brought by Nike/Converse. That case was cited by IP Law360 as the top trademark ruling of 2016;
• Served as Aereo’s lead trial counsel in the successful defense in the Southern District of New York (874 F. Supp.2d 373 (S.D.N.Y. 2012)) and lead appellate counsel in the successful appeal at the Second Circuit (712 F.3d 676 (2d Cir. 2013)). The case was ultimately decided by the Supreme Court on an issue of first impression in 2015;
• Represented Cablevision in the Southern District of New York in Cartoon Network LLP v. CSC Holdings, Inc. (478 F. Supp. 2d 607 (S.D.N.Y. 2007)), and was instrumental in developing the arguments that ultimately succeeded at the Second Circuit, which clarified copyright law on issues of both reproduction and public performance (536 F.3d 121 (2d Cir. 2008);
• Served as lead trial counsel for Triumph Learning in the successful defense of trademark claims in Coach Services, Inc. v. Triumph Learning LLC (96 U.S.P.Q.2d 1600 (T.T.A.B. 2010)), and successfully defended that verdict before the Federal Circuit (668 F.3d 1356 (Fed. Cir. 2012)) in a decision that established a new standard for “fame” in trademark dilution cases;
• Served as lead trial counsel for the New York Times and The Boston Globe in Gatehouse v. The New York Times, a case of first impression that involved both copyright and trademark claims, which settled favorably just prior to trial (2012);
• As a senior associate, served as a member of the trial and appellate team in Lorillard v. Reilly, a case that was ultimately decided in the client’s favor at the United States Supreme Court (533 U.S. 525 (2001)), in one of the leading First Amendment commercial speech decisions in recent jurisprudence.

The Hollywood Reporter has previously included David in its annual Power 100 edition, highlighting the most influential media attorneys in the country, and naming his team’s defense of Aereo, Inc. against claims brought by the country’s major television broadcasters at the trial court and before the Second Circuit as the “Case of the Year.” He has been recognized as a leading practitioner in The American Lawyer, The World Trademark Review 1000, and The Legal 500, among other legal publications. He also writes extensively about the law, and has lectured at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center, Boston College Law School and the New England School of Law.

Alice Hsu Partner

New York

Alice advises boards of directors, issuers, underwriters and investors in a broad range of transactions, including public offerings; special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs); private placements of equity and debt securities, public mergers and acquisitions, and general corporate matters.

Alice also provides strategic advice on a myriad of securities regulation, corporate governance and other general corporate matters. She regularly counsels companies regarding Securities and Exchange Commission reporting and disclosure issues, stockholder meetings, proxy statements and proxy mechanics. Her work extends to advising public companies with respect to defensive review matters, including implementation of shareholders rights plans and related issues.

Benjamin Hutten Partner

New York

Ben has a deep understanding of sanctions and AML regulations and enforcement. In addition to his client work, he has participated in numerous financial industry group regulatory initiatives related to sanctions and AML issues, including The Clearing House Guiding Principles for Anti-Money Laundering Policies and Procedures in Correspondent Banking, initiatives to address “de-risking” and related to BSA information sharing. Ben also conducts international trainings in AML and sanctions issues for the Financial Services Volunteer Corps.

He has been recognized by Best Lawyers in America as "One to Watch" and by Super Lawyers as a "Rising Star." Prior to joining Orrick, Ben was counsel at Buckley LLP and an associate at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP.

Stephen Jackson Partner

Paris; New York

Steve is admitted in New York California, England and Wales, and Paris and his primary focus is on U.S. taxation of securitizations and re-securitizations, including collateralized debt and loan obligations, mortgage-backed securitizations, structured investment vehicles and other structured finance and financial markets transactions.

For over fifteen years, Steve has served as tax counsel to issuers and underwriters in numerous registered, agency and privately-placed CMBS and RMBS transactions (primary issuances and re-securitizations), involving performing loans and non-performing loans, as well as other mortgage-related asset classes, such as servicing advances and tax liens, and in securitizations involving other asset classes such as credit card and auto loan/lease receivables. Steve also provides tax advice in connection with whole loan purchase transactions, including leveraged and nonleveraged acquisitions, joint ventures involving mortgage assets and repo and warehouse financings for various asset classes. Steve also advises financial institutions on tax issues in connection with their role as servicer, trustee or securities administrator under various securitization programs, as well as with respect to FATCA.

Steve writes and lectures on finance and international related tax topics and also participates actively in the tax committee and other initiatives of the Structured Finance Association and other industry and bar-related organizations.