Washington, D.C.

DOJ, SEC, FTC, FBI, DOL, FERC, CFPB and SCOTUS. Alumni of these federal institutions call our D.C. office home.

Our team members advocate before key Washington institutions, including the Federal Circuit, the ITC, DOJ, the IRS, DOE, EEOC, Treasury, DOD, the White House and Congress. We are also deal lawyers, with a strong record in energy and infrastructure, public finance, and cross-border transactions for U.S. and international businesses.

Our local practice in D.C. mirrors our global focus on the technology, energy & infrastructure and finance sectors, and our leadership in litigation and compliance.

Litigation & Compliance

Our Supreme Court & Appellate group is one of the nation’s elite practices. The team comprises nine first-chair partners (five based in Washington) and includes nearly a dozen former Supreme Court clerks and several former members of the Department of Justice, Civil Division, Appellate Staff. We are on the National Law Journal’s Appellate Hot List in recognition of our "deep bench, diverse cases, high-profile clients and presence in the nation’s highest court."
Our Antitrust & Competition lawyers represent leading companies across industries in merger and conduct matters before the FTC and DOJ’s Antitrust Division, as well as in criminal cartel investigations, federal and state court litigation, and international regulatory proceedings. We draw on deep government experience as former regulators and are not afraid to take disputes to trial. While we can handle any sophisticated antitrust dispute, we have a particular focus on cutting-edge antitrust intersections with technology, intellectual property and regulated industries.

Our White Collar team features the former general counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of a major international oilfield services company, who was also a senior DOJ anticorruption prosecutor. The team includes other former senior DOJ prosecutors, including the former head of Bank Secrecy Act and Money Laundering prosecutions at DOJ. We conduct investigations and defend criminal matters. We also draw on our government experience in advising on anti-bribery, anti-money laundering and other types of compliance programs and issues.

Our Commercial Litigation practice is diverse – we represent major international companies in consumer, energy and employment claims, as well as several professional sports unions in some of their most visible matters. Clients worldwide rely on our close watch of U.S. courts and regularly read our team’s publication, The World in U.S. Courts, a quarterly review of decisions applying U.S. law to global business and cross-border activities.
Our International Trade & Compliance team works hand in hand with our Corporate and Investigations teams to help clients like GE and the leading semiconductor companies overcome barriers to cross-border business. We’ve been involved in Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) national security screenings of particularly sensitive international investment transactions, such as the acquisition of the U.S. plane maker Cirrus by the leading Chinese government aerospace conglomerate.

Energy & Infrastructure

Our D.C. office has one of the largest energy and infrastructure transactions teams in the region, and is particularly well known for work in the renewables, conventional power and transportation sectors. Our capabilities cover all major fuel sources in all phases of development, and include nearly all types of major players in the industry. While the majority of our work in D.C. relates to developing renewables, such as wind and solar projects, our team has also facilitated the construction of new nuclear and natural gas-fired facilities in the U.S. In the transportation sector, our lawyers have worked on some of the largest public-private partnerships in the region, including the Virginia HOT lanes expansion of the Beltway, and the expansions of I-95, I-66, I-395 and the Pocahontas Parkway.

Technology

Our D.C. IP lawyers focus on Section 337 investigations before the International Trade Commission as well as patent infringement cases before the U.S. District Courts. We have extensive experience representing Japanese consumer electronics companies in IP litigation and represent several 3-D printing pioneers. We advise major pharmaceutical companies on litigation and compliance matters at the intersection of IP and antitrust law.
Our Cyber, Privacy & Data Innovation practice is ranked by The Legal 500 for our aggressive yet practical approach in working with boards, the C-suite, in-house counsel and IT/Infosec stakeholders on a range of cyber preparedness and incident response engagements, and in facilitating privacy and consumer protection compliance and litigation against federal and state regulatory agencies.

Finance

Our nationally dominant Public Finance practice includes a team in D.C. We advise state and local governments, including the District of Columbia, and financial institutions in tax-exempt financings. In the D.C. community, our attorneys have helped finance major projects for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, the Washington Convention Center and Sports Authority, and the District of Columbia, Children’s Hospital Obligated Group. The team includes one of the nation’s leading authorities on the taxation of municipal finance and post-issuance tax compliance matters.
Our D.C. finance team also includes members of our market-leading Structured Finance and Real Estate practices.

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Our Office and Our Community

Our office has a strong commitment to pro bono legal services and volunteer work. Nearly all of our D.C. lawyers met our firm’s 20-hour pro bono standard last year – and most far exceeded it. For five years we have been a leading supporter of the Legal Aid Society of D.C., which is the District’s oldest and largest civil legal services organization. Lawyers in the D.C. office dedicate time to the Children’s Law Center in pro bono adoption and guardian ad litem cases. The Tahirih Justice Center counts Orrick D.C. as one of its law firm partners. We work with the center on policy initiatives and cases to prevent abuse and exploitation, protect and promote access to asylum for women and girls fleeing gender-based discrimination and abuse, and advocate internationally to end violence against women and girls.

Through the Orrick Cares program, we’ve helped clean up a local elementary school with Hands on DC, sponsored the Washington Humane Society’s Pet-A-Palooza and participated in multiple events to raise funds for the Washington Humane Society, and constructed Little Free Libraries for distribution in underserved communities in the District.

We also created a national Veterans’ Legal Career Fair, held annually in Washington, D.C. This event – the only one of its kind in the United States – provides a unique opportunity for legal employers nationwide to interview lawyers who are veterans or active-duty service members preparing for a transition out of the military.

We have close relationships with many D.C. area law schools. Our lawyers serve as adjunct professors and lecturers at Georgetown University Law Center, George Washington University and American University, with two of our associates volunteering with GWU’s Scholarly Writing Program. At University of Virginia Law School, we sponsor two fellowships that provide clerkship opportunities with an international tribunal or constitutional court.