People

Wolfram Pohl Partner

San Francisco

Wolf represents many of the country’s most prominent developers and financing parties in structuring transactions to take advantage of tax credits, Treasury cash grants, depreciation benefits, and other available tax benefits. He has represented developers and tax equity investors in financings of both wind and solar projects, as well as on tax planning for energy storage, carbon capture, and carbon sequestration projects. 

Braxton Roam Of Counsel

Washington, D.C.

Braxton advises major financial institutions (tax equity investors and infrastructure funds), lenders, developers, and sponsors in the renewable energy sector—particularly those in the wind, solar, battery storage, biomass and energy tech space—to structure financings for their projects to take advantage of federal tax incentives like the Section 45 production tax credit (PTC), Section 48 energy investment tax credit (ITC), and accelerated depreciation (MACRS and “bonus”) using partnership flips, sale-leasebacks, public/private partnerships, and other structuring options. He has been particularly focused on providing clients with the latest guidance and opportunities relating to the Inflation Reduction Act including with respect to Section 6418 tax credit transfers, Section 6417 direct pay opportunities, domestic content, energy communities, and the prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements.

Rohit Sachdev Partner

San Francisco

Rohit has extensive experience in the solar, wind, energy storage, and biofuel sectors, and has advised on numerous award-winning transactions. He is recognized by Chambers USA and Chambers Global in the Projects: Renewables & Alternative Energy category. Rohit’s clients describe him as “excellent,” “knowledgeable,” “timely in his work,” “commercially-oriented,” “very plugged into the market” with a “great demeanor."

In recent years, Rohit's practice has focused particularly on project development and project M&A transactions. He has successfully negotiated many GWs of "physical" and "virtual" PPAs and tolling agreements, as well as a variety of construction, supply and other development arrangements. Rohit has also represented clients on the purchase and sale of renewables projects in various U.S. jurisdictions, as well as joint venture and other project asset arrangements. He has particularly focused on the development, financing and sale of domestic and international energy storage projects, including stand-alone, hybrid, front-of-meter and behind-the-meter projects.

Rohit co-leads Orrick’s South Asian Inclusion Network and served as a Fellow for the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity.

He started his legal career at an international law firm in New York, where he focused on project development and project finance transactions across the globe. Prior to law and business schools, Rohit was an investment banking analyst at Credit Suisse in San Francisco where he provided M&A and financial advisory services to technology companies in Silicon Valley.

Kristin Seeger Partner

San Francisco

Her experience spans projects across the United States and Canada and includes award-winning transactions. She is recognized nationally as Chambers USA Band 2 for Projects: Power & Renewables: Transactional (2024) and as a Leading Lawyer: Energy-Renewable/Alternative Power by Legal 500.  Clients describe her as "very knowledgeable" with a "great sense of being practical and understanding what the drivers are on either side of the table."

Kristin is a key member of Orrick's energy transition practice, which was recognized as Band 1 in Energy Transition by Chambers USA (2024). She also serves on Orrick's Board.

Les Sherman Partner

San Francisco

Chambers publications identify Les as a Leading Lawyer and report that clients say Les is an “icon in California in the renewables space”, has "notable expertise spanning solar and wind generation projects as well as battery storage development" and has “established a reputation as the go-to guy in California”.  Chambers also reports that Clients say Les has "a brilliant mind," "his finger on the pulse of the market" and "a very good eye for detail when thinking through practical agreements and understanding how it is all going to work in practice". Clients note "he is one of the best PPA lawyers in the business." Les also is recognized by Euromoney, The Legal 500 and The Expert Guides as a Leading Lawyer in energy project development, M&A and finance.

Les represents many of the industry’s leading companies on project development, financing and M&A transactions for solar, wind, energy storage, biomass, gas and similar projects. Les has led the Orrick team’s thought leadership in the growing battery and hydrogen energy storage market, has published numerous articles on the topic, and has served as lead counsel on many of the largest storage and renewables+storage transactions completed to date.

Eric Stephens Partner

San Francisco

Eric helps clients design and build successful renewable energy businesses by advising on how projects and portfolios large and small can maximize their value through well-informed negotiation, efficient diligence and acquisition techniques, and responsive and creative problem solving.

Eric has particularly deep knowledge in helping developers strategically procure the equipment and services necessary to develop, construct, commission, operate and sell renewable energy projects of all sizes, and in helping investors evaluate the development work of potential investments. Development and procurement managers excel at sourcing and pricing a project’s needs, and Eric can build on this by bringing these contracts to completion with deep market knowledge, in a way best suited to the client’s commercial objectives and so that they withstand the scrutiny of project investors, lenders and buyers. Eric balances work for utility-scale projects with the growing distributed energy generation and storage sector, both of which recently include negotiation of contracts to “safe harbor” equipment or construction activities to preserve higher levels of ITC or PTC. He has represented energy project developers, equipment suppliers and installers, publicly-owned utilities, private equity investors and other parties in developing energy projects from very early stages of securing technology and land/resource rights to buying and selling operating assets, and everything in between.

Minako Wakabayashi Partner

Tokyo

Minako has significant experience advising international and domestic sponsors and developers on complex and innovative projects. She was called upon by the Japanese government in structuring the renewable Feed-in-Tariff scheme in Japan and prepared the government’s model contracts for specific contracts (power purchase contract/interconnection contract), which are a key component of the Feed-in-Tariff scheme in Japan. Recently, she has also been handling numerous corporate PPA projects.

She was appointed as Auditor of the Japan Wind Power Association (JWPA) in May 2022.

Minako practiced at Orrick’s New York office in 2004-2005. She also worked as a public prosecutor in Japan for four years and served as a member of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Supervising Committee for Public Bidding (Tokyo-to Nyusatsu Kanshi Iinkai) for eight years. She is serving as Audit of Veritas In Silico Inc since March 2022.

Ashley Walter Partner & Chief Sustainability Officer

Seattle

As Orrick’s Chief Sustainability Officer, he also oversees Orrick's strategic sustainability initiatives. Ashley focuses on developing innovative methods of supporting clients in achieving ESG objectives, including designing novel systems to manage supply chain risk; forming and guiding management-level ESG Steering Committees; and helping clients address the ESG requirements of major customers by engaging with those customers on our clients’ behalf.

Ashley is a co-founder and past chair of the Corporate Social Responsibility Law Committee of the ABA Business Law Section, has co-chaired the Practising Law Institute's annual ESG program for the last four years, and is heavily involved in ESG initiatives at Stanford Law School, where has served as a moderator at the Stanford Directors' College, has lectured on ESG at business law courses, has taught the course “Corporate Social Responsibility,” and will be teaching the course “Law and Governance in ESG Strategy” in the spring of 2025. Prior to Orrick, Ashley founded the corporate social responsibility practice at a Silicon Valley-based law firm.

How I help clients:

• Customer ESG Engagement: Engaging with clients’ major customers in response to ESG inquiries or requirements
• Supply Chain Risk: Developing responsible sourcing systems for high-risk supply chains
• ESG Goal Management: Advice regarding retaining, modifying or withdrawing ESG goals
• ESG Steering Committees: Forming and guiding management-level ESG Steering Committees
• ESG Due Diligence: Conducting ESG due diligence with a focus on post-closing program building
• Quarterbacking Compliance: Creating and advancing a project plan for regulatory compliance, including working with third-party consultants

Paul Zarnowiecki Partner

Washington, D.C.

Transactions on which Paul has advised include the development, financing, acquisition and divestiture of renewable and conventional power projects and other infrastructure assets in a broad range of commercial and corporate transactions. He has served as lead counsel on some of the most innovative and complex U.S. renewable energy transactions in recent years in both the wind and solar energy sectors.

He is recognized by Chambers USA and Chambers Global, where clients describe him as "highly committed to ensuring clients get excellent service" and "very commercially minded."