Financial Times Top 3 for Innovation for the 7th Year in a Row


2 minute read | December.07.2022

  • Financial Times has named Orrick the No. 3 most innovative law firm in its North America Innovative Lawyers Report 2022.
  • It’s our seventh consecutive year being ranked among the top three firms.
  • Orrick received maximum points for both innovation and social responsibility.

MAPE 2.0 – a platform that transforms M&A execution – won the Reinventing Legal Practice category.  MAPE 2.0 combines tech tools, new roles and process changes to help deal teams execute more effectively and efficiently.  It also pools data to help our clients benchmark and introduces processes that enable our lawyers to focus on adding strategic value.  Our MAPE 2.0 team included Matthew Gemello, Wendy Curtis, Kate Orr, Daryl Shetterly, David Ruff, Zac Padgett, Nathan Dooley and Sara Gates, among many others. See what FT had to say about MAPE 2.0.

The firm’s work helping Texas recover from Winter Storm Uri, which triggered the worst energy infrastructure failure in the state’s history, won the Business Resilience category.  The firm advocated for legislation to establish a first-of-its kind securitization financing that is helping electric cooperatives manage the extraordinary power costs resulting from the storm, and provides a model for future climate crises.  Our team included Carl Lyon, Kyle Drefke, Lorraine McGowen, Seth Norris, Dora Mao, Howard Goldwasser, Mike Mitchell, Andrew Silverman, John Narducci, Jason Warrington, Peter Seel, Jodie Liu and Ekaterina Popoff.

In addition, FT chose Orrick’s Global Head of Practice Innovation Kate Orr as one of the Most Innovative Intrapreneurs, describing her as a “mindset changer” who has “made an art of enacting change.”

FT also highlighted:

  • Our Racial Justice Fellowship Program, which embeds experienced Orrick lawyers full-time for a full year at civil rights, racial justice and economic empowerment organizations on the frontlines to address community needs and national policy.
  • Our collaboration, through the Racial Justice Fellowship Program, with Common Future to launch an $800K community-driven loan fund that takes a unique approach to lending to undercapitalized BIPOC businesses nationwide on non-extractive terms.

FT has recognized Orrick for legal innovation every year since its inaugural report in 2010.