Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP

Chairman: Mitch Zuklie
Number of lawyers worldwide: 1,300+

Firm Overview:
Orrick is focused on serving clients in the technology and innovation, energy and infrastructure, and finance sectors globally. Founded more than 150 years ago, the firm today has 1,300+ lawyers in offices across the US, Europe and Asia. The firm provides clients with innovative approaches to their most complex transactional, litigation and regulatory matters. Financial Times singled out Orrick as the ‘Most Innovative Law Firm in North America’ in 2016, 2017 and 2018, runner up in 2019, and Fortune has named the firm among the ‘100 Best Companies to Work’ for four years in a row.

Main Areas of Practice:  

Technology & Innovation:
■ Represented Oracle in the appeal, retrial on remand, and second appeal of the Orrick v. Google copyright trial – one of the most closely watched IP cases of the decade. The Federal Circuit unanimously found that Google’s use of Java was not fair use as a matter of law. In overturning the jury verdict, the Federal Circuit reaffirmed important copyright protections for software developers and set the stage for a new trial to decide how much Google should pay to Oracle in damages for its unauthorised use of Java
■ Scored back-to-back wins for tech titans Microsoft and Twitter in major gender discrimination cases. The employment team persuaded two separate judges to reject bids for class certification of gender bias claims in less than two weeks. These cases were referred to as ‘the barometer for gender bias litigation in the tech industry’
■ Achieved a complete victory in the ITC 337 trade secret misappropriation case on behalf of Advanced Technology & Materials and four other Chinese respondents. The case was awarded ‘Disputes and Investigations Deal of the Year’ by China Business Law Journal in 2019
■ Took on and won one of the most closely watched and high-stakes patent fights in the biotech industry – which involved the largest patent verdict in US history. In 2016, after a jury awarded $2.5 billion against Gilead – with the other side seeking still more damages – the life sciences giant enlisted Orrick’s appellate team to overturn the judgment favoring Merck subsidiary Idenix
■ Advised Neutrino Srl on its acquisition by Coinbase Inc. from 360 Square, a fund managed by 360° Capital Partners. The acquisition represents one of the first exits in the Italian market, the most important transaction related to information security and the first in the field of currency encryption
■ Handled $345 million in fundraising rounds for payment company Stripe, one of the leading payment processing companies who provide a software platform that allows individuals and businesses to make and receive payments over the Internet
■ Advised Microsoft’s venture fund M12 on their corporate venture capital investment in German AI startup Twenty Billion Neurons (TwentyBN)
■ Advised carsharing pioneer Getaround on its acquisition of Drivy, the largest and fastest-growing carsharing platform in Europe. With this acquisition Getaround now has a presence in 300 cities in the US and Europe, making it the world’s leading carsharing market-place with more than five million users
■ Representing Arby’s in defending against all consumer and financial institution class actions arising from a data security incident announced in February 2017. Obtained favorable early settlement of consumer class claims asserted by customers in the Northern District of Georgia
■ Served as lead outside counsel for Supervalu in defending all class action litigation stemming from the data security incidents that Supervalu announced in 2014. Obtained complete dismissal of all class action claims asserted by consumers in multidistrict litigation consolidated in District of Minnesota, including successfully urging affirmance of dismissal on appeal to the Eighth Circuit
■ Advised Atomico, the venture capital firm founded by Skype co-founder Niklas Zennström, on their investments in the financing of Lilium, a Bavarian developer of the world’s first fully electric vertical take-off and landing jet

Energy & Infrastructure:
■ Collaborated with Microsoft on a ground-breaking renewable energy contract structure to reduce risk reduce risk for buyers in corporate power purchase agreements (PPAs). This solution, which won a 2019 FT Innovative Lawyer award, makes purchasing renewable energy not only environmentally responsible but also fiscally prudent, shifting balance sheet risk away from buyers
■ Advised on the largest wind power-generation project in Japan covering a 12 km area along the coast of the Sea of Japan. Upon completion, it will be Japan’s largest wind power station, supplying Tohoku Electric Power with electricity equivalent to the annual power consumption of approximately 90,000 houses
■ Advised ENEO on the €1.2 billion development of a 420 MW hydropower plant located on the Sanaga River in southern Cameroon. This is the largest Independent Power Project (IPP) ever funded in Africa and the first to be finalised after the extension of the electricity sector reform in the country
■ Advised VINCI Airports in the acquisition of nine airports and three partial management contracts in Northern Ireland, Sweden, Costa Rica and across the US. The operation increases the number of VINCI’s traffic passengers to more than 182 million a year
■ Advising the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in the US$24 billion redevelopment of the Hudson River underwater rail crossings and associated infrastructure (Gateway Project) currently in the preliminary stages of development and financing
■ Advised Clearway Energy in its US$1.35 billion acquisition of an approximately 4.7 GW development pipeline of utility-scale solar projects spanning 16 states from SunPower
■ Advised a consortium of four partners in the US$1.37 billion joint sale of Meade Pipeline Co LLC to NextEra Energy Partners. Meade owns an undivided interest in an approximately 177-mile natural gas pipeline in Pennsylvania that is part of the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline project
■ Advised Ocean Rig UDW, Inc. and affiliate TMS Offshore, Ltd. in connection with ORIG’s US$2.7 billion sale to Transocean in a cash and stock transaction
■ Routinely advising on high-stakes energy litigation matters at the highest courts worldwide, such as the firm’s recent success in defeating an arbitral award in relation to a major nuclear power plant project before the German Supreme Court and in State of Rhode Island v. Shell Oil Products Company, LLC et al before the US Supreme Court for climate change-related infrastructure damage
■ Advised the French State on €2.2 billion refinancing of Sud-Europe-Atlantique (LGV SEA) high-speed rail line. The 302 km rail line is the largest civil engineering project in Europe to date and the most extensive railway infrastructure concession contract ever awarded in Europe
■ Advised the note purchasers in the first-of-a-kind securitisation of oil and gas well interests, achieving an investment-grade rating and establishing a distinct, new asset class for securitisation transactions
■ Advised Glennmont REBS, the renewable energy debt fund managed by Glennmont Partners, in its investment in a first-of-its-kind securitisation of performing and non-performing photovoltaic energy receivables with a gross book value of approximately €180 million

Financial Services:
■ Representing China Resources Capital Management in the formation of the US$2 billion China Resources Healthcare Fund, L.P
■ Advised BPCE and Natixis on the implementation of BPCE Home Loans FCT 2019, the first residential real estate loan securitisation transaction in France compliant with the European Union’s new Securitisation Regulation’s STS (Simple, Transparent and Standardised) label
■ Acted as bond counsel for a US$61.4 million green bond issued to finance one of the world’s largest anaerobic digester facilities. This innovative project has been noted as the first renewable natural gas project financing in the US capital markets and awarded Environmental Finance’s Green Project Bond of the Year in 2019
■ Acted as counsel to the borrower for the refinancing of the Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park. The deal combined a US$950 million commercial mortgage-backed securities loan with a US$650 million Liberty Bond loan originally issued in 2010
■ Represented Credit Suisse and its affiliates in numerous lawsuits brought by monoline insurers and trustees of residential mortgage backed securities (RMBS) trusts. The firm obtained the dismissal with prejudice of a complaint related to US$2.8 billion of securitised mortgage loans which was affirmed by the New York Court of Appeals
■ Advised Wells Fargo in several capacities on the US$1 billion restructuring of Legacy Reserves LP
■ Achieved a successful result on a motion to dismiss for fintech client LendingClub and its senior officers in a securities class action in the Northern District of California alleging false advertising
■ Advised Equinix, the global data center company and its JV partner GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, on a complex cross-border hybrid €850 million financing for the acquisition and development of hyperscale data centers located throughout Europe
■ Advising Westbrook Partners on their visionary transformation of St. John’s Terminal, a US$1+ billion mixed-use redevelopment project in Manhattan, including the US$700 million sale of the south unit to Oxford Properties, where Google plans to create a 1.7 million square foot campus