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740

Practice:

  • Finance Sector
  • Technology & Innovation Sector
  • Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Technology Companies Group
  • Corporate Governance

Karen Dempsey Senior Advisor

San Francisco

Karen is involved in a full range of corporate legal projects for high growth technology companies including venture financings, public offerings, public company securities law compliance matters and mergers and acquisitions. She also regularly advises public companies and board of directors on corporate governance issues. Karen's clients include private and public companies in the biotechnology, real estate, finance and Internet related industries. She also represents underwriters in initial public offerings and follow-on offerings and venture capital firms in investment transactions.

Karen is a frequent speaker on corporate and securities law topics including Initial Public Offerings, Corporate Governance and Sarbanes-Oxley matters. She is also Co-Editor of Part III of Venture Capital & Public Offering Negotiation, published by Aspen Law & Business.

Before joining Orrick, Karen was a shareholder at Heller Ehrman LLP and was chair of their firmwide corporate governance practice group.

740

Practice:

  • Finance Sector
  • Public Finance

Brandon Dias Partner

Sacramento

California Local Government Finance. Brandon focuses on California local government financing structures including general fund lease revenue bonds and certificates of participation; pension obligation bonds; tax and revenue anticipation notes; mello-roos bonds, assessment district bonds and other land secured financing structures; redevelopment financing; water and wastewater revenue bonds; airport revenue bonds; and public power revenue bonds.

Tax-Exempt Healthcare Finance. Brandon also focuses on tax-exempt healthcare finance for 501(c)(3) organizations. His experience includes financings for standalone hospitals, hospital systems and continuing care retirement communities. He has served as bond counsel or underwriters' counsel on tax-exempt healthcare financings in various states throughout the nation.

Practice:

  • Technology & Innovation Sector
  • Cyber, Privacy & Data Innovation
  • California Consumer Privacy Act
  • General Data Protection Regulation
  • Strategic Advisory & Government Enforcement (SAGE)

Tori Downey Data Privacy & Cybersecurity Innovation Attorney

Boston

Tori advises clients on enhancing their data privacy and security profiles and building comprehensive global data protection programs. She provides guidance on issues relating to a vast array of state, federal and international privacy and cybersecurity laws, including:

  • Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)
  • EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
  • Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Act
  • Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA)
  • U.S. surveillance-related laws
  • U.S. state data breach notification laws
  • U.S. state privacy laws in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah and Virginia (CCPA, CPRA, CPA, CTDPA, UCPA, VCDPA)

Tori also supports clients in developing strategies to reduce the risk of security incidents, regularly advises on general consumer protection issues, and counsels on sweepstakes, marketing, and advertising matters.

Prior to joining Orrick, Tori served as an in-house data privacy and security law clerk at a pharmaceutical company in Boston, at a large nonprofit corporation in New York City, and at an international oil and gas company in Beijing. She also worked on data privacy matters in the Office of the General Counsel of Northeastern University. Having worked across diverse business sectors, including life sciences, technology and energy, Tori brings an in-house perspective to her client matters.

191011

Practice:

  • Finance Sector
  • Structured Finance

James Duff Of Counsel

Los Angeles

Beginning in 2006, James has advised clients on a variety of asset-backed securities, including residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS), commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS), re-securitizations of RMBS and collateralized debt obligations, and charter school receivable-backed securities. He has also represented municipal and state agencies for municipal bond transactions.

During the financial crisis, James advised clients on mortgage loan modifications, and advised municipal and state agencies on interest rate mode changes and bond refinancings.

Recently, James has worked on a number of RMBS and CMBS transactions.  

James is an avid triathlete and winner of a number triathlons, including the 2016 North Carolina Ironman.

740

Practice:

  • Finance Sector
  • Public Finance

Patricia L. Eichar Partner

Portland; Sacramento

Ms. Eichar has represented issuers, underwriters and borrowers in taxable and tax-exempt municipal financings for health care organizations, senior living communities, and other types of 501(c)(3) organizations.  In addition, Ms. Eichar has represented various municipal issuers, including the State of California, in the issuance of general obligation bonds, deficit bonds, revenue anticipation notes, lease revenue bonds, enterprise revenue bonds, pension obligation bonds and land-secured bonds, and in municipal lease and redevelopment financing.

As disclosure counsel to myriad public agencies, Ms. Eichar advises on matters including the content of primary offering documents as well as continuing disclosure filings.

In addition to her work in municipal financings, Ms. Eichar has taken on multiple pro bono projects, including prosecuting guardianships for Sacramento's Voluntary Legal Services Program and assisting veterans with appeals of denial of disability benefits before the Board of Veterans Appeals.

Practice:

  • Finance Sector
  • Steuern

Peter Elias Partner

Santa Monica

He regularly assists in the tax planning and structuring of emerging companies and other transactions relevant to their formation and sale, including founder loan share purchases and secondary sales, “Up-C” IPO transactions, obtaining and optimizing “qualified small business stock” tax benefits, conversions of limited liability companies, structuring and documenting “profits interests” and other favorable equity to founders, as well as M&A, joint ventures, equity and debt financings, buyouts, divestitures, and restructurings. He has significant experience in real estate and related transactions, including structuring and tax planning for private equity investment funds, joint ventures, and like kind exchanges and other tax-advantaged exit strategies, including:

  • Tax planning and structuring for private equity and venture capital investment vehicles, including the use of parallel or alternative investment vehicles, co-investment vehicles, or other similar structures to accommodate participation by tax-exempt entities and/or non-U.S. parties.
  • Implementing tax efficient structures and exit strategies for U.S. real estate projects, joint ventures or similar vehicles, including recapitalizations, in-kind distributions, leveraged recaps, as well as like-kind exchange structures pursuant to tax code section 1031.
  • Providing advice and tax structuring for investment funds and related entities in connection with secondary market purchases of debt securities and debt instruments, including distressed debt, as well as related debt modifications, workouts, foreclosures and/or related resolutions.

Pete has spoken and written extensively in areas involving private equity, venture capital, hedge and real estate funds, real estate joint ventures and distressed debt, and private equity transactions.

Pete also is an adjunct professor at the U.C. Irvine School of Law, having created and taught classes focused on Tax Planning for Real Estate Transactions, for both JD and LLM (taxation) students.

311490

Practice:

  • Finance Sector
  • Finance
  • Structured Finance
  • Asset‐Backed Securities
  • Commercial Mortgage‐Backed Securities
  • Residential Mortgage‐Backed Securities
  • Banking & Finance
  • Real Estate

Elizabeth J. Elias Partner

New York

Elizabeth has played a key role in numerous pioneering esoteric deals and has extensive experience in the securitization of commercial PACE liens, musical composition and sound recording copyrights, television, movie and other IP royalties, whole business operating companies, diamond receivables, litigation settlement awards, and PDP oil & gas wellbore interests. In addition to her work in esoteric ABS, Elizabeth represents a wide array of market participants, including sponsors, issuers, underwriters, and service providers, in both public and private commercial mortgage-backed securities offerings.

Practice:

  • Finance Sector
  • Steuern

Carsten Engelings Counsel

Düsseldorf

Carsten berät Mandaten aus dem Industriesektor, Finanzinstitute und Private Equity-Fonds in allen möglichen deutschen Steuer- und Buchhaltungsfragen. Hauptaugenmerk liegt auf Unternehmens- und Immobilientransaktionen sowie Restrukturierungen. Er berät und vertritt Mandanten auch bei steuerlichen Außenprüfungen und in Steuerstreitigkeiten gegen die Finanzverwaltung sowie vor deutschen Finanz- und Zivilgerichten. Vor seinem Eintritt bei Orrick absolvierte Carsten sein Referendariat in nationalen und internationalen Anwaltskanzleien.

740

Practice:

  • Finance Sector
  • Restructuring
  • Insolvenzschiedsverfahren

Debra Felder Chief Practice Officer of Fin

Washington, D.C.

As Chief Practice Officer, Debbie advises on strategic planning, operations, and management of Orrick's Banking & Finance, Public Finance, Real Estate, Restructuring, and Structured Finance practice groups, which comprise more than 200 attorneys globally.  Her responsibilities include oversight of the Finance Business Unit's financial performance, advancement of the Unit's strategic initiatives, business planning and execution, and lawyer recruiting.  

As a lawyer in Orrick's Restructuring group, Debbie represents secured and unsecured creditors, investors, lenders, asset purchasers, financial institutions, preference defendants, debtors and other parties in a wide variety of bankruptcy and restructuring matters, as well as in related litigation throughout the United States. In 2020 and 2021, Chambers USA named Debbie an Associate to Watch in the District of Columbia’s Bankruptcy/Restructuring category, and clients praised her as “extremely knowledgeable” and providing “very business-minded, practical advice in the most efficient manner possible.”

Debbie is currently the lead restructuring associate representing the court-appointed representative for future asbestos personal injury claimants in a complex Chapter 11 pending.

Debbie was the lead restructuring associate representing Toyota in the $30 billion bankruptcy of Takata Corporation. Takata and several of its subsidiaries filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States and sought bankruptcy protection in Japan and several other jurisdictions in the aftermath of a worldwide problem involving faulty airbag inflators that led to numerous deaths and the recall of millions of vehicles. Toyota was one of the largest creditors in the proceedings, with claims of over $7 billion. Orrick’s work in the Takata bankruptcy and restructuring matter – which included the sale of all of Takata’s assets except for the inflator business to the Chinese-owned, Michigan-based Key Safety Systems – was awarded the “2019 Cross Border Turnaround of the Year / Large” by Global M&A Network.

Debbie was also the lead restructuring associate in the representation of the Conflicts Committee of Seadrill Partners (SDLP) in the $14 billion Chapter 11 bankruptcy and associated restructuring proceedings of Seadrill Limited, SDLP’s parent company. This bankruptcy and related restructuring was awarded “2019 Cross Border Turnaround of the Year / Mega” by Global M&A Network.

Other recent notable engagements include representing counsel to a borrower in the restructuring of a toll road, representing financial institutions and others in the global Lehman insolvency proceedings, representing a lender in the restructuring of a performing arts center, representing a purchaser in a section 363 bankruptcy sale and representing a defendant in a preference and fraudulent transfer litigation.

Debbie is active in pro bono matters including advising distressed clients in corporate dissolution proceedings pursuant to state statutes. She recently drafted a white paper on “Pay for Success” (PFS) programs – a social services funding mechanism in which non-governmental investors fund social programs and receive returns on their investments from the government only if the programs are successful – which explores the feasibility of using PFS programs to provide civil legal aid to vulnerable populations. She also represents proposed guardians and adoptive parents in connection with guardianship and adoption proceedings involving abused or neglected children in the Superior Court for the District of Columbia.

In addition, Debbie serves as Orrick's Risk Management Counsel where she advises the Firm's management and more than 1,100 Orrick lawyers across the world on issues related to professional responsibility, risk management, and legal issues involving the Firm.

Debbie regularly presents CLE training programs to clients on bankruptcy-related topics, including best practices for creditors.

Prior to joining Orrick, Debbie was an associate at Swidler Berlin LLP. As an undergraduate, she spent four summers as an intern in the Clerk’s Office of the United States Supreme Court. During her time at the United States Supreme Court, Debbie researched and wrote a paper on the U.S. Attorneys General, which she presented to the U.S. Solicitor General.

740

Practice:

  • Finance Sector
  • Public Finance

Donald Field Partner

Orange County; Los Angeles

He is also a member of Orrick's Leasing Practice Group, Assessment/Mello-Roos Practice Group, and Revenue Practice Group. Don has extensive experience, as bond counsel, disclosure counsel and underwriter's counsel, in the financing techniques used by school and community college districts, cities and counties in California. His practice focuses on local governmental infrastructure financing, including general obligation bond financing, municipal lease financing, and land-secured financing, as well as tax and revenue anticipation note (TRAN), pension obligation and other post-employment benefit (OPEB) obligation financings. Don serves as the lead lawyer for the California School Boards Association's annual tax and revenue anticipation note pool. 


740

Practice:

  • Finance Sector
  • Banking & Finance
  • Data Centers
  • Technology Companies Group
  • Real Estate
  • Finanzierungen im Transportwesen

Zachary Finley Partner

San Francisco

He advises publicly held and privately owned (including sponsor-backed) companies, financial institutions, credit funds and other alternative lenders in connection with broadly syndicated loans, pro rata (bank-only) credit facilities and a wide variety of private credit transactions (including senior secured, junior lien, senior subordinated and mezzanine loans). His experience also extends to asset-based loans, project financings, debt restructurings and workouts. In addition, Zach regularly represents technology companies on various types of growth capital financings used to rapidly expand their businesses and to deploy new and market-disrupting products and services.

Zach has a particular passion for the digital infrastructure sector, stemming from his extensive experience representing data center operators, service providers, lenders and investors in the space. As one of the leaders of Orrick’s multidisciplinary data center practice, he is well-versed in traditional and increasingly bespoke financing structures to address the unique needs and challenges of clients in this ever-evolving industry.

In the 2025 California Banking & Finance category of Chambers USA, clients praise Zach as “a phenomenal” and describe him as “extremely aware of the market and a great resource when it comes to debt financing.” He is also recognized by IFLR1000, where clients note that Zach “is an outstanding business partner” and “his strengths are his creativity, accessibility, diligence and his ability to bring all of Orrick's resources to bear.”

Zach previously served a three-year term on the Commercial Transactions Committee (formerly called the Uniform Commercial Code Committee) of the Business Law Section of the State Bar of California, acting as its Co-Chair for the final year of his term.

Practice:

  • Energy & Infrastructure Sector
  • Energy & Infrastructure
  • Real Estate
  • Energy
  • Renewable Energy
  • Solar Energy
  • Wind Energy
  • Real Estate
  • Öffentliche Finanzierung erneuerbarer Energien
  • Banking & Finance
  • Mergers & Acquisitions
  • UK
  • Hydrogen
  • Offshore Wind

Simon Folley Partner

London

He regularly counsels clients on a broad range of real estate matters, including the acquisition and disposal of investment property across asset classes; advice to corporate occupiers on lettings and office moves; real estate development; and the property aspects of corporate and financing transactions.

Simon also has extensive experience in the energy sector, where he has advised on the acquisition, sale, development and financing of a variety of projects. He has particular knowledge in renewable energy, with significant experience in offshore and onshore wind, solar and biomass. He is a member of the Orrick team that is adept in the disposal of offshore transmission assets as part of the OFTO tender process run by Ofgem.