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Peter Bicks Partner

New York

In recognition of Peter’s career trial work, he was inducted into the American College of Trial Lawyers in 2015. Juries have compared him favorably to Johnnie Cochran and F. Lee Bailey. Clients laud Peter, telling Chambers USA 2020-2022, “He’s a standout trial lawyer and an outstanding advocate overall. He appreciates the client’s needs and advocates for them everywhere.” Another client notes, “He is brilliant in the courtroom under the most intense pressure,” “a master of seeing the full chessboard.” That praise is echoed by sources saying, Peter is “one of these lawyers that really turns big cases; he’s a real trial lawyer,” and calling him “one of the most gifted trial lawyers that I have ever seen.” Clients go on to applaud his trial experience and strategic approach saying, “Peter really knows his way round a courtroom. He's a great trial tactician.” “He is an outstanding advocate who appreciates the client's needs and reputational questions involved.” A peer in the trial bar told Law360, “What is most impressive is his ability as a true Field General – calmly directing his team’s efforts.”

With precedent-setting trial wins in intellectual property, commercial and products liability litigation, Peter has amassed honors from annual top rankings in Chambers USA, Legal 500, and Benchmark Litigation, to awards for excellence, such as New York “Litigation Star,” “Law360 MVP,” “Litigator of the Week,” and “Top 100 Trial Lawyers in America.”

It is Peter’s versatility that sets him apart. He brings a combination of deft courtroom skills, strategic acuity and team leadership. In July 2023, a leading company in the biotech agricultural space, Corteva Agriscience, retained Peter as lead trial counsel in a high profile intellectual property lawsuit Corteva filed against Inari Agriculture, Inc. and Inari Agriculture NV to protect its highly valuable patent protected genetically modified seeds. As noted in the complaint, the lawsuit "…seeks to prevent Inari from continuing its brazen efforts to steal Corteva's groundbreaking work." Specifically, the lawsuit alleges that Inari deliberately used a third-party agent to obtain protected Corteva seeds, illegally exported the seeds out of the United States, made slight genetic modifications of the biotech traits and is seeking U.S. patents for those modified traits. The case is pending in the U.S. District Court, Delaware and is in discovery. In May 2022, when faced with a headlining trial over control of the leading international model and talent company, Elite Worldwide Group, the company and its Chairman tapped Peter as lead trial counsel to parachute in just 45 days before trial. Our complete trial win for the client earned Peter and the team Litigators of the Week Runner-Up honors from the American Lawyer. Louis Dreyfus Company turned to Peter recently as lead trial counsel once they saw that a massive, high stakes trial was on the horizon with over $1 billion at stake amid class action claims alleging manipulation of the cotton futures market. DISH Network brought Peter in shortly before trial when the FTC and various state attorneys general sought $700 billion in damages and penalties for alleged telemarketing violations. He achieved an astounding trial victory for DISH limiting recovery to less than one percent of the exposure. For Johnson & Johnson, Peter has been part of a small group of market-leading outside counsel overseeing the defense of more than 15,000 talc-related cases, including product liability trials, consumer class actions, and cases brought under California’s Prop 65; handling multiple trials, SEC, DOJ, and AG investigations; and representing senior executives in major depositions, at trial, and before Congress.

Peter served as co-head of the firm's Global Litigation practice and is a former member of Orrick’s Board and Management Committee. Before joining Orrick, Peter was a partner at Donovan Leisure. He captained his college tennis team to a national ranking, has successfully competed in major national sailboat competitions, and serves on the Board of the Harlem Junior Tennis and Education Program. With his wife Linda, he has three children: Avery, Isabelle and Phoebe.

Richard Bierschbach Associated Law Professor

New York

Richard has substantial experience advising clients across a wide range of cases, with particular focus on matters involving novel or complex constitutional, statutory, administrative, or other public-law issues, appeals, and legal and strategic counseling. A former law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and to Judge A. Raymond Randolph on the D.C. Circuit, Richard served both as a Bristow Fellow in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of the Solicitor General and as an Attorney-Adviser in its Office of Legal Counsel. During that time, he regularly counseled federal government attorneys on appellate and legal strategy issues and provided written and oral advice to the White House, the Attorney General and other executive branch offices on a broad spectrum of constitutional, statutory, and regulatory questions. He also practiced as an appellate litigator in the New York office of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering from 2001-03 and, more recently, as of counsel in the New York office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Before his appointment as Dean, he was a tenured professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where he was Vice Dean from 2015-16.

Richard teaches and writes in the areas of administrative law, criminal justice, and corporations. His published work has appeared in the Yale Law Journal, the Michigan Law Review, the Virginia Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the Northwestern University Law Review, the Georgetown Law Journal, and the University of Minnesota Law Review, among other journals. He twice—in 2013 and 2015—received the Best Professor Award from Cardozo’s graduating class. He has been quoted on legal developments by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, ABC News, Slate, and other media.

Ben Bolnick Associate

New York

A member of Orrick's Litigation business unit, Ben's primary practice involves defending Orrick's clients against high-stakes investor and consumer lawsuits. He works collaboratively and creatively to advance clients' interests.

Ben's ongoing representation includes:

• Louis Dreyfus Company in a $1.6 billion commodities futures class action lawsuit;
• PHH Mortgage Corporation (formerly Ocwen) in a $75 million, precedent-setting dispute over deferred loans in residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS); and
• A Fortune-500 company in a variety of product-liability actions.

Ryan Booms Managing Associate

Washington, D.C.

He represents clients in complex matters involving products liability and commercial contracts. He is also active in pro bono matters.

While in law school, Ryan participated in the USC Hale Moot Court Honors Program. He also externed for the Honorable Virginia A. Phillips in the Central District of California. Before law school, Ryan served in the Teach For America corps and taught middle school history.

Heather M. Boylan Clark Senior Litigation Attorney

Wheeling, W.V. (GOIC)

Prior to joining Orrick, Ms. Boylan Clark worked in the Trial Practice Group of Jones Day in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she litigated cases involving the Fair Credit Reporting Act, breach of contract, breach of warranty, fraud, defamation and negligence claims.  She also has significant experience defending class actions, and has acted as lead counsel for one of the big three national credit reporting agencies in more than 40 cases.

Tim Carroll Partner

Chicago

Tim focuses his practice on cutting-edge technologies, including mobile apps, location-based services, messaging systems, medical devices, content-management platforms, Wi-Fi-enabled thermostats, and green technologies. Whether serving as lead trial counsel before the International Trade Commission (ITC), successfully arguing before the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, or obtaining an outright win on liability grounds in the fabled Western District of Texas, he has secured scores of victories for his clients.

Tim first-chairs all of his cases, securing trial wins and preliminary injunctions, forcing adversaries to stipulate to noninfringement, winning summary judgment awards, prevailing in claim-construction arguments, and securing substantial attorneys' fee awards. He routinely leads joint defense groups involving some of the largest and most sophisticated companies and law firms in the country. His national high-stakes practice, aggressive but fair approach, exceptional advocacy skills, and impressive win-loss record have all contributed to the strong rapport he has built with clients and colleagues.

Tim has successfully litigated dozens of trade secret disputes involving military weaponry and defense systems, aerospace products, and financial technologies, and has extensive experience in inter partes reviews (IPRs) and other post-grant proceedings. Tim maintains a thorough understanding of the search and archiving platforms used by modern corporations, enabling him to provide counsel to more than 100 global businesses, including two Fortune 15 companies, on adopting and implementing lawful complaint information management programs and e-discovery and litigation readiness initiatives.

Sonora Carroll Associate

Washington, D.C.

Sonora's practice includes a diverse range of complex litigation, regulatory enforcement, and government-initiated investigation matters. She also maintains an active pro bono practice.

Sonora received her J.D. from the Howard Law School in Washington, D.C. While in law school, she participated in the Howard Criminal Justice Clinic where she represented indigent individuals charged with misdemeanors in Washington, D.C. Superior Court. Sonora was also a student attorney in the Howard Civil Rights Clinic where she contributed to an amicus brief in the landmark case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

Jean-Paule Castagno Partner

Mailand

Jean-Paule has more than 20 years of proven experience in white collar and corporate investigation, managing all phases of crisis management, such as internal investigations – including those of a cross-border nature –, the court defence in the context of criminal proceedings and the sanction proceedings before the Supervisory Authorities, in the interests of both individuals and legal entities (according to the D. Legislative Decree no. 231/2001). Jean-Paule advises clients in high-profile and complex cases with specific reference to anti-money laundering, financial crimes, false accounting, bankruptcy offenses, tax crimes, corruption and bribery in both the public and private sector, environmental crimes, occupational health and safety offenses, intellectual property crimes, data protection and privacy crimes/cybercrime, and import/export sanctions.

Thanks to her broad experience in conducting internal investigation and assisting individuals and legal entities in criminal and sanctions proceedings, she has been involved in advising Italian and foreign companies to address potential compliance risks, in performing due diligence focused on risk management and compliance risk in the context of extraordinary transactions and IPOs as well as in preparing and updating compliance programs (adopted under Law No. 231/2001) and in leading relative training to the board and to the employees.

She has also been appointed as member and chairwoman of the surveillance committees (Organismo di Vigilanza) of many Italian and foreign companies.

Olivia Clements Senior Litigation Attorney

New York

Olivia represents companies and individuals in high-stakes litigation in federal and state courts nationwide. She has served a pivotal role in multiple successful jury trials, including arguing motions and formulating effective direct and cross examination strategies for both fact and expert witnesses. Olivia has extensive experience in all phases of litigation from drafting and responding to complaints to managing fact and expert discovery to drafting briefs to working on creative settlement solutions in alignment with clients' overall business and organizational goals. Her engagements have involved mass torts and product liability, multi-million dollar contract disputes, joint venture and partnership disputes, trade secret misappropriation, and defamation and trade libel. She also has experience with FCPA compliance and investigations.

Olivia maintains an active pro bono practice and serves as a member of the Pro Bono Advocates Council for Volunteers of Legal Service.

Emajae' Clements Associate

Houston

Emajae's practice includes a diverse range of complex litigation and employment litgation matters from across the country. She effectively drafts briefs, works with experts, and provides developed insights to advance her team's trial strategies.

Emajae' received her J.D. from the Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C. While in law school, Emajae' served as the Captain of the Huver I. Brown Trial Advocacy team becoming the Texas Young Lawyers Association's National Trial Competition Regional Champion and National Semi-Finalist. Emajae' was also a student attorney in the Movement Lawyering Clinic.

Luigi Colombo Senior Counsel

Mailand

He has assisted some of the most important Italian groups in a judicial and extra-judicial advisory capacity, including general corporate and corporate governance.

Prior to joining Orrick, Luigi was a partner at Studio Legale Tributario in Milan, a law firm associated with Ernst & Young International.

Kristin Cornuelle Of Counsel

Portland

Kristin focuses on U.S. and international trademark and copyright counseling and prosecution, advising on branding strategies, and resolving trademark-related disputes for clients in a variety of industries, including food and beverage products, retail and clothing, consumer products, cloud computing, software and Internet services, social networking and online gaming. She has extensive experience in advising and representing clients in proceedings before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as well as the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. In addition, Kristin maintains an active pro bono practice in the areas of trademark and copyright law, homelessness, housing, and domestic violence.

Prior to her legal career, Kristin held various executive level positions in both the non-profit sector and local government.