Sacramento Office

Governmental Affairs

Orrick’s Governmental Affairs practice consists of lawyers, lobbyists, and research staff headquartered in our Sacramento office. The practice covers nearly all aspects of state legislative, administrative, and regulatory law.  The firm undertakes federal projects on a strategic, targeted basis.  Services provided by the firm include:

• Integrated legal and governmental services.
• Quality external strategic advice, political analysis, advocacy, and lobbying strategy.
• Action on issues of economic interest to clients
• Helping clients navigate government’s complex and often tangled pathways, creating opportunities or removing obstacles.

The primary focus of our Governmental Affairs practice has been on matters related to corporate and municipal finance, banking, tax, securities, municipal finance, tax-exempt bonds, insurance, financial institutions, and commercial and project finance.  In addition, we take pride in our comprehensive expertise related to state governmental contracts and procurement.  In 1984, Orrick was the first prominent California firm to establish a Washington D.C.-style governmental affairs practice.

Employment Law

The Sacramento office represents many employers with operations located in Northern California and beyond.  Our labor and employment practice is extraordinarily dynamic, reflecting the clients we regularly serve, including Citicorp Development Center, Danone Waters of North America, Intel, Investors Bank & Trust, Longs Drug Stores, Microform Precision, Slakey Bros., Swift Newspapers, Sierra Pacific Packaging and Wilbur Ellis. 

• Orrick lawyers represent Citicorp Development Center, Inc., CitiBank Service Corporation, Citigroup Global Markets, Inc. (formerly known as and Salomon-Smith Barney, Inc.) in a class action complaint alleging improper classification of computer software engineers.
• Orrick lawyers represented Danone International Brands in a wage-and-hour class action challenging the exempt status of 800 bottled-water deliverers who were classified as exempt under the outside sales exemption.  The case also included off-the-clock allegations. 
• Orrick lawyers represented Tyco Healthcare Group L.P. in a trade secret dispute involving departed employees located throughout the United States who allegedly took trade secrets.
• Orrick lawyers represent Investors Bank & Trust in a class and representative action in which plaintiffs allege misclassification of accountants and failure to provide meal and rest periods.
• Orrick’s lawyers defended The Picture People, a subsidiary of Hallmark Cards, in a California wage-and-hour class action brought by approximately 200 individuals challenging the exempt status of senior assistant managers and store managers classified as exempt under the executive exemption. 
• Orrick lawyers negotiated the terms of a new collective bargaining agreement for Signature Fruit Company, the successor to Tri Valley Growers. Orrick represents Wilbur-Ellis in a representative action brought on behalf of all salaried employees in California. The lawsuit alleges various wage-and-hour violations.

Our extraordinary team of Employment lawyers represents clients in state and federal court, before state and federal administrative agencies (such as the NLRB, DOL, EEOC and the DFEH).  Our lawyers also have extensive experience in complex employment litigation, including class and collective actions; personnel policy planning; collective bargaining; union representation; and counseling in virtually every labor and employment area of concern to employers, from discrimination and wrongful termination, to wage-and-hour compliance.

Litigation/Intellectual Property

The Sacramento Litigation/Intellectual Property Group represents notable clients in sophisticated, high-stakes litigation across the country in state and federal courts and before arbitration bodies at all levels of the litigation process.  For clients as diverse as Bank of America, Honda, the California Department of Insurance, CalTrans, Procter & Gamble, Bayer Corporation, and ConAgra Food Products, our litigation and intellectual property attorneys try cases and prosecute or defend appeals in bet-the-company disputes. 

• Orrick lawyers won a ten-week jury trial in which our clients were fully exonerated from multimillion dollar claims for breach of fiduciary duty and securities fraud.
• Orrick lawyers enjoined the Wall Street Journal from infringing on the California Journal’s trademark, a case that went to the California Supreme Court.
• Orrick lawyers have assisted newspapers in challenging denials of access to court proceedings and public documents.
• Orrick lawyers defend Proposition 65 claims related to such diverse products as hot chocolate mixes, indigestion remedies, and nasal sprays.
• Orrick lawyers represented the State of Idaho in litigation in Washington, D.C. challenging the reintroduction of grizzly bears over vociferous local opposition.
• Orrick lawyers represented the State of California and its officials in numerous landmark trial and appellate matters, including litigation involving the sitting of a low-level radioactive waste facility, affirmative action programs, and state government financing.
• Orrick lawyers represented private clients in major procurement disputes, including Medi-Cal Managed Care program and the other significant health care procurement matters.
• Orrick lawyers litigate claims and bankruptcy issues in some of the nation’s largest bankruptcy cases.
• Orrick lawyers represent the Insurance Commissioner in the conservation and rehabilitation of several major insolvent insurers, and in collateral litigation involving insurance coverage, reinsurance, and other insurance related issues.
• Orrick’s litigation attorneys frequently defend public finance transactions against opposition and court challenges. 

Our Litigation/Intellectual Property Group is deeply committed to alternative dispute resolution, including mediation, arbitration, and the use of private settlement judges when appropriate to our clients’ needs and goals. We are also dedicated to pro bono representation of indigent clients and worthy causes.

Our litigators won a groundbreaking decision from the California Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District, establishing the right of pro-bono counsel to win attorneys’ fees when they defeat SLAPP suits.  With our broad litigation experience and our ability to draw on litigation resources from Orrick’s offices around the United States, our clients rely on us to win their cases at trial or achieve favorable settlements cost-effectively. 

Bankruptcy and Debt Restructuring

We are involved in a broad range of local and national workout, restructuring, and Chapter 11 matters.  Generally, Orrick represents secured and unsecured creditors, including financial institutions and public entities and indenture trustees. Our roster of clients also includes purchasers of debt and assets, landlords, creditor and equity committees, and bankruptcy trustees and debtors.  The breadth of Orrick’s transactional experience in insolvency matters is exceptional, ranging from exchange offers and other out-of-court workout structures, to virtually every aspect of a corporate reorganization.  This includes pre-negotiated and pre-packaged Chapter 11 plans and mergers and acquisition transactions, as well as corporate liquidation and dissolution proceedings.  Notable recent engagements include:

• Orrick lawyers comprised primarily from our Sacramento and San Francisco offices represented John Hancock Life Insurance Company and affiliates as secured lenders holding over $120 million of debt in the Tri Valley Chapter 11 case pending in Oakland, California.  Through a court-approved sale, John Hancock acquired the bulk of Tri Valley’s California assets and, through an affiliate, became the owner of one of the largest canners and processors of fruit in the world.
• Orrick lawyers from Sacramento, working in concert other lawyers throughout the firm, represented IRM Corporation and 21 affiliates in their Chapter 11 cases.  A joint plan of reorganization was confirmed and consummated during 2000, resulting in the restructuring of approximately $165 million of secured institutional debt and creating over $100 million in equity for investors.  The reorganization plan, which was consensual among all constituencies, was the largest ever confirmed by the bankruptcy court in Sacramento.
• Orrick lawyers, along with lawyers from our other offices, represented the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the San Francisco case of Colo.com, an international co-location facility system with over 30 locations.  Colo.com’s unsecured debt exceeded $400 million; substantially all of its assets were sold as a going concern during the Chapter 11 case.
• Orrick lawyers are core members of the nationwide Orrick team representing the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the Delaware bankruptcy case of Stone & Webster, an international engineering and construction enterprise with 72 subsidiaries, having creditor claims in excess of $2 billion.
• Orrick bankruptcy and litigation lawyers obtained an almost $1 million deficiency judgment in favor of Bank of America in a state court judicial foreclosure/deficiency judgment proceeding involving property adjacent to the Lincoln Airport in Northern California.
• Orrick lawyers are involved in representing Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems in litigation in the massive Enron Chapter 11 case pending in New York City.
• Orrick lawyers from around the nation, including Sacramento bankruptcy lawyers, represented MatlinPatterson Global Opportunities Partners L.P. in the de-leveraging of approximately $650 million in public debt and the restructuring of approximately $485 million of bank debt of Polymer Group pursuant to a plan of reorganization approved by the bankruptcy court in Columbia, South Carolina.  (Polymer Group is the third largest producer of nonwoven materials in the world.)
• The same team of Orrick lawyers represented MatlinPatterson in the de-leveraging of over $250 million of Oxford Automotive, Inc. debt through the conversion of its public debt and junior DIP facility into equity pursuant to a plan of reorganization approved by the bankruptcy court in Detroit, Michigan.  Oxford is a leading automotive supplier with more than $1 billion in annual sales.

Public Finance/Tax

The Sacramento public finance group is actively involved in virtually every type of public entity financing. 

• At the State of California level, Orrick lawyers work closely with the State Treasurer and the various State authorities and agencies in the issuance of bonds to finance the State’s infrastructure needs, as well as financing health, educational, water, and power facilities.
• At the local level, Orrick lawyers work with cities, counties, and other governmental entities in financing their activities.  These local financings range from basic (but essential) assessment, general obligation, and revenue bonds, to the most complex securitizations of tobacco settlement funds and power revenue bonds.
• Nationally, the Sacramento office leads the firm’s efforts in health care finance, tax-exempt financing of convention center and airport hotels, and financing for Native American tribal governments.  In  these areas, we are considered an industry leader, with large national practices. 

Overall, we work on the largest, most complex, and most interesting public finance matters in the country, including public power bonds in response to the California electric industry crisis, major health care mergers, and financings in excess of $1.0 billion by the State of California.  And we have a lot of fun doing it.