People

Eric Newman Associate

Houston

He counsels clients on a variety of transactions in the energy industry, with a focus on renewable energy project development. Before law school, Eric worked as a geologist, first in upstream oil and gas and then in the environmental remediation industry. He also owned a vegetable farm in Upstate New York.

Michelle Pichardo Managing Associate

Houston

Michelle focuses her practice on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, project development and general corporate matters for clients in the oil and gas and renewable energy industries.

Tierra D. Piens Senior Associate

San Francisco; Houston

Tierra represents clients in high-stakes employment disputes, including individual and class action cases involving wage-and-hour laws, discrimination, harassment, and wrongful termination. She also provides strategic employment advice and counseling, helping clients navigate complex legal landscapes with confidence.

In addition to her litigation and advisory work, Tierra conducts internal investigations, providing clients with thorough and effective solutions to sensitive workplace issues.

As an experienced DEI advisor, Tierra assists clients in re-evaluating and strategically repackaging their diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in response to recent legal challenges and the new Trump administration. Her insights help clients adapt to the evolving legal environment while maintaining their commitment to inclusive workplaces.

Tierra's hands-on experience includes a nine-month secondment at Airbnb, where she was embedded with the global employment legal team. During this time, she addressed employment issues from both a U.S. and global perspective, gaining invaluable day-to-day experience.

While her practice focuses primarily on the representation of large corporate clients and emerging companies, Tierra also devotes a portion of her practice to providing pro bono services to nonprofit organizations and low-income individuals. She also serves in several leadership roles at Orrick, including as a leader of the Black Lawyers of Orrick inclusion network and on Orrick's Associates' Committee for the San Francisco office.

Tierra received her J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, where she also earned a Law & Technology Certificate of Specialization as recognition for her extensive coursework in technology law.

A former judicial extern on the Northern District of California, Tierra has experience navigating both the federal and state court systems.

Cacique Rich-Martinez Managing Associate

Houston

Cacique counsels  global energy companies, private equity funds and renewables developers on a wide range of transactions in the energy industry with a particular focus on renewable and traditional energy. He represents his clients in connection with the development, repowering, acquisition, and divestiture of wind, solar and energy storage projects, and the acquisition and divestiture of upstream oil and gas projects, the formation of joint ventures, and other corporate governance and legal due diligence matters.

Cacique served a combined 14 years in the Marine Corps and Marine Corps Reserve, and is a veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Joe Roger Partner

Houston

As global demand for energy continues to rise and governments, investors and consumers continue to support the decarbonization of the energy industry, Joe has developed a particular focus on advising large multinational energy companies on energy transition issues, including in connection with investment in hydrogen, ammonia, carbon capture and storage, and renewable energy projects and innovations in conventional energy. Joe is a key member of Orrick’s energy transition practice, which was recognized as Band 1 in Energy Transition by Chambers USA (2023-2024).

Joe is recognized by Chambers Global (2023-2024), Chambers USA (2021-2024), The Legal 500 (2018-2024) and Super Lawyers - Rising Stars (2014-2021) for his work on energy transactions. Clients describe him in Chambers as “very responsive, knowledgeable, easy to work with and business-minded” and a “capable and thoughtful transaction leader with a commercial mindset.”

Li Shen Senior Associate

Houston

Li has experience representing a broad range of clients through project development and acquisitions and divestitures, including through the negotiation and drafting of master, short-term, and long-term LNG sales and purchase agreements, tolling agreements, methanol sales and purchase agreements, hydrogen purchase and sale agreements, and physically and financially settled power purchase and sale agreements.

Li also has experience working on energy commodity purchase agreements, including oil and gas, power, and renewable energy credits using industry forms such as ISDA, NAESB, EEI, and other ancillary documents. As a Mandarin speaker who has worked in both the United States and China, Li has also leveraged her unique intercultural background to counsel Chinese energy companies in the United States.

Li is also actively involved in pro bono engagements, including asylum and immigration matters.

Spencer Sinclair Senior Associate

Houston

Spencer is a trusted advisor to a diverse range of clients, including renewable energy developers, private equity investors, multi-national energy companies, and startups, providing expert guidance on complex transactions and helping clients achieve their most important business goals. Known for his strategic insight and practical approach, Spencer delivers tailored solutions that drive value and mitigate risks, ensuring successful outcomes for clients across the full lifecycle of their ventures.

As global energy demand continues to grow amidst an increased focus on decarbonization of the energy industry, Spencer takes pride in working closely with pioneers involved in the energy transition, helping to steer development and investment in solutions such as carbon capture and storage, hydrogen, ammonia, offshore wind, renewable power generation, energy storage and other exciting technologies that are critical to achieving decarbonization on a global scale.

Larry Sobel Partner

Los Angeles; Houston

As both bond counsel and underwriter’s counsel, he has been responsible for structuring and analyzing the tax aspects of many tax-exempt financings throughout the country.

Larry has extensive experience in handling IRS audits of bond transactions. He has represented issuers in dozens of audits all of which have ended favorably either with the IRS issuing a “no change” letter or by negotiating a reasonable settlement when needed. Larry also has handled a number of submissions under the IRS’ Voluntary Closing Agreement Program (or VCAP). The two most recent VCAP submissions represented cases of first impression for the IRS; one involving an issue of qualified energy conservation bonds relating to determining the amount of those bonds eligible for the federal subsidy; the other involved the plan to convert a “new money” bond issue into an advance refunding (which did not meet all of the requirements for a tax-exempt advance refunding). Both cases ultimately were resolved on the original terms proposed to the IRS.

Larry has also been instrumental in developing new financing techniques and structures. He first devised the tax structure and analysis for, and has served as tax counsel on, Orrick’s tax exempt tobacco revenue securitizations. He has developed the tax structure on numerous tax-exempt prepayments for natural gas for municipal utilities both within and outside of California.

Amanda Stephens Partner

Houston

Amanda has advised on more than $4 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 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.

Alex Straughn Patent Agent

Houston

Alex has authored scientific papers in peer-reviewed publications examining the molecular basis of regenerative myogenesis and cancer-induced cachexia. His doctoral work in Anatomical Sciences and Neurobiology from the University of Louisville focused on transgenic animal studies and in vitro paradigms to discern critical signaling pathways necessary for the repair of skeletal muscle. He has extensive experience in molecular biology, including the generation of viral vectors and CRISPR/Cas9 constructs, and in performing electrophysiological recording of skeletal muscle in situ. In his postdoctoral studies, he focused his research efforts on interrogating the molecular basis for the induction the skeletal muscle wasting disorder “cachexia” in a novel model of ovarian cancer-induced cachexia.

Emily S. Tabatabai Partner

Washington, D.C.; Houston

Emily provides strategic counseling and advice on privacy, consumer protection and online safety matters to clients across industries, including retail, ecommerce, mobile apps, gaming, social media, advertising technology (adtech), financial services, education, business services and technology. She also represents clients subject to regulatory investigations, including before the FTC and States Attorneys General, Congressional committees and other regulatory agencies and groups.

Emily provides proactive compliance guidance, and regulatory investigation defense, on a variety of privacy and consumer protection laws, including:

• U.S. state privacy laws in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, Virginia and other states
• Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)
• Online safety laws for kids and teens, including California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (AADC), Utah Social Media Regulation Act and others
• Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTC Act) and state unfair and deceptive acts and practices (UDAP) laws
• Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
• California’s Student Online Personal Information Protection Act (SOPIPA), New York’s Education Law 2-d and other state student data privacy laws
• Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) and other biometric privacy laws
• Washington My Health My Data Act and other state health privacy laws
• Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)
• Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA)
• Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA)
• Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR)
• Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (ROSCA)

Emily is a frequent speaker on data privacy matters, with a particular focus on children’s privacy (COPPA), student data privacy and EdTech and online safety laws for kids and teens. She has been featured as an “Up and Coming” Privacy & Data Security attorney by Chambers USA and Chambers Global. Clients tell Chambers, “She’s been an excellent partner. She has a very good understanding of the practical realities of implementing privacy policies for large companies.” Citing her expertise in the field of educational privacy, student data and EdTech matters, Chambers reports that clients regard her as “very knowledgeable and truly an expert in this space,” with some saying, “On the student data side, she is unmatched,” and The Legal 500 notes that Emily “is the first port of call for child- and student-directed service providers for compliance advice with COPPA, SOPIPA and CalOPPA regulations.”

Emily also has an active consumer protection practice, focused on marketing and promotional issues. She counsels clients on advertisements and endorsements, retail sales and e-commerce, advertising substantiation, SMS and telemarketing, social media and online advertising.

Darrell Thomas Senior Counsel

Houston

Darrell has experience in a wide range of traditional real estate matters, including drafting and negotiating development agreements, construction contracts, restrictions agreements, purchase and sale agreements, ground leases, facility and office leases, and construction and permanent loan documents. He has also formed commercial and residential condominium regimes, including for mixed uses. He represents developers and users in acquisition and development matters, including requirements for access, utilities, detention, drainage, use restrictions and economic incentive arrangements. He also represents lenders in commercial mortgage loan originations, workouts and foreclosures.

Darrell also works on all aspects of real property requirements for energy and other projects, including drafting and negotiating leases, easements and other real property agreements, satisfying title insurance requirements, reviewing and revising property tax abatement agreements and resolving conflicts between mineral and surface development. connection with renewable energy projects, including the development, construction, financing, acquisition and disposition of projects.