Mike has spent over 15 years helping founders and boards navigate the full company lifecycle—from formation and fundraising to scaling, acquisitions, and IPOs. He also serves as outside general counsel, advising on the legal and strategic challenges that come with growth.
Mike is all about efficiency, assembling legal teams that scale with his clients—from an early-stage founder sketching an idea on a napkin to executives leading multibillion-dollar companies through major transactions. His approach is rooted in trust and candid advice, particularly when navigating the complex and uncertain situations that inevitably arise in high-growth companies.
Leveraging Orrick’s sector-focused approach and legal innovation tools, Mike advises startups and high-growth companies on financing rounds, IPOs, and M&A deals. He also works closely with top venture capital and growth equity funds, guiding them through investments.
Prior to joining Orrick, Mike was a partner and co-founder of Gunderson Dettmer’s Los Angeles office.
Recognized as a “Next Generation Partner” by The Legal 500, Mike’s clients praise him as “incredibly knowledgeable, responsive, and always helpful,” with one calling him their “favorite external counsel.” Super Lawyers also named him a Rising Star in 2022 and 2023.
Mike earned both his law degree and bachelor’s degree at UC Berkeley, just a short walk from each other down Bancroft Avenue. A lifelong Cal Bears fan, he still holds out hope for a Rose Bowl appearance—ACC realignment and all.
Cody works with founders at every stage, from early formation to financing rounds, acquisitions, and IPOs. He has a particular focus on first-time founders navigating the complexities of startup life, helping them make informed decisions without getting lost in legal jargon.
Before becoming a lawyer, Cody was the COO of a health and fitness e-commerce startup in Las Vegas. That entrepreneurial experience shaped his approach—he brings a “nothing is impossible” mindset and a deep understanding that legal matters are just one piece of the puzzle for founders. His advice is always practical, actionable, and tailored to the realities of running a fast-moving business.
Cody represents both startups and venture funds across industries including e-commerce, fintech, climatetech, future of work, edtech, life sciences, and biotech. He also leverages Orrick’s deep industry focuses and innovative legal tools to help high-growth companies navigate financings, IPOs, and M&A transactions.
An active member of the LA startup community, Cody regularly mentors and coaches founders, including participants in the Plug In Accelerator, a program supporting Black and Latinx early-stage entrepreneurs.
Cody earned his law degree from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and his bachelor’s degree from Pomona College. Before joining Orrick, he was a partner and co-founder of Gunderson Dettmer’s Los Angeles office.
Nino counsels employers through every stage of the immigration process, from developing company-wide sponsorship policies and onboarding foreign national talent to managing visa transfers, extensions, and consular processing. She regularly partners with in-house legal, human resources and global mobility teams to design practical, business-minded immigration programs that reduce risk while supporting talent acquisition and retention goals.
Nino earned her J.D. from Rutgers Law School and her B.A. from Boston University. She is admitted to practice in NY and NJ.
Hayley manages clients' trade mark portfolios and has significant experience in trade mark searching, providing pre-filing guidance, and navigating trade marks successfully through to registration.
She also regularly advises clients in trade mark dispute and infringement matters.
Before moving into private practice, Hayley spent over a decade working in the in-house trade mark teams of a multinational pharmaceutical company and a multinational consumer goods company.
John Paul represents major financial institutions in their roles as arrangers, administrative agents and lenders across a broad spectrum of secured credit facilities. His experience includes subscription-backed credit facilities, NAV facilities, hybrid facilities and other asset-based financings. Clients regularly seek his counsel on the structuring, negotiation and syndication of complex credit facilities, particularly those involving cross-border considerations, bespoke collateral structures and sophisticated sponsor-backed investment vehicles.
John Paul’s cross-border fund finance and asset-based lending practice sits at the intersection of fund finance, structured credit and traditional leveraged lending, allowing him to deliver commercially focused, solutions-oriented advice on a wide range of financing products. This versatility enables him to support both specialized fund finance mandates and broader lending transactions, making him a valuable resource for clients with diverse financing needs.
Admitted in New York. Application for admission by comity pending with the North Carolina State Bar. Practicing under the supervision of a North Carolina attorney.
Amanda has advised on more than $5 billion of both publicly-offered and privately-placed charter school financings. Her work on these financings extends across the country, including Texas, Florida, Tennessee, California, Arizona and New York, among many others. Amanda works with a first-of-its-kind nonprofit social impact fund that leverages private charter loans to the public market. Since their creation in 2018, Amanda has worked on documenting more than $1.7 billion in loans to high-performing charter schools who do not otherwise have access to long term, low cost financing. Amanda and team are tasked with working with the local borrower’s counsel for each new borrower and each new state to create a financing structure that meets the long term needs of the borrower, while conforming with state charter law and the clients lending requirements. Amanda has also created structures to help with taxable refundings, to finance around existing new market tax credit structures and many other needs of the borrowers.
Amanda also represents banks and other financial institutions in connection with direct purchases of tax-exempt bonds and the issuance of letters of credit and other liquidity facilities in connection with tax-exempt transactions.
Over the course of her career, Amanda has prepared, negotiated and reviewed contracts, loan documents, amendments, closing documents, default letters, demand letters, payoff and buyout agreements, intercreditor subordination agreements, and federal tax lien subordinations. She also has reviewed client contracts and MSA agreements in the oil and gas, construction, medical, retail and transportation industries, and she has addressed regulatory and compliance issues for the finance industry and oil and gas industry. Amanda previously served as an in-house attorney for a national financial services company. She also has served as a staff attorney for Judge Jaclanel McFarland of the 133rd Civil District Court in Harris County, Texas, and as assistant district attorney for the Harris County District Attorney’s office.
Erica has experience as general counsel representing special districts and developers, specifically assisting a variety of clients and developers with their real estate and land use needs, focusing on commercial and residential project development and related infrastructure and finance matters.
Palak has served as bond counsel, disclosure counsel, underwriters’ counsel and issuer’s counsel on various types of financing structures including general obligation financings, tax and revenue anticipation financings, current and advance refundings, lease revenue financings, certificates of participation, and special tax financings for Mello Roos community facilities districts, school districts, community college districts, local government and state agency clients. Palak also represents investment banking institutions in governmental and qualified private activity bond transactions across industry segments.
Palak is a dual qualified attorney, licensed to practice law in California and India. Prior to joining Orrick, Palak worked with a law firm in New Delhi, India and represented governmental entities and private parties in international commercial arbitration and business disputes.
She specializes in the full spectrum of securities litigation, including securities class actions, shareholder derivative lawsuits, SEC and internal/board investigations, Section 220 books and records inspections and founder disputes.
Alison advises on civil and appellate procedure and practice in state and federal court. Before joining Orrick, Alison was the Career Law Clerk for the Honorable John A. Gibney, Jr., in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Alison also has experience as a civil litigator at a large international law firm, where her practice focused on matters related to government contracts, export controls, and economic sanctions.
Jason has represented technology companies in multiple venues, including various state and federal courts, the International Trade Commission, and the Patent and Trademark office. His matters span different technological areas including, Information Technology, satellite communications, semiconductor manufacturing, circuit design and verification tools, image texture and graphics processing, gaming, and a variety of software products.
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