People

Michael Vance Managing Associate

Houston

Michael represents clients in complex business transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, private equity investments, project development, commercial agreements and general corporate matters primarily in the oil and gas and renewable energy industries.

Albert Vanderlaan Partner

Boston

Albert is involved in a broad range of corporate legal engagements for high growth technology companies, including IPOs, follow-on public offerings, private and public company securities law compliance matters, public company disclosure obligations, venture financings, mergers and acquisitions, de-SPAC transactions and SPAC IPOs. He also regularly advises public and private companies and their boards of directors on corporate governance issues.

Albert's clients include public and private companies in technology, energy, automotive, Internet related industries, real estate, finance and the life sciences (including, among others, immuno-oncology, gene therapy, restorative cell therapy and medical device companies). He also represents underwriters in initial public offerings, follow-on offerings and PIPE offerings and venture capital firms in a variety of investment transactions.

Albert was named to the Deal’s Top Rising Stars 2021 list, which recognizes top new partners at U.S. law firms who are “doing spectacular work in the field of deal-making and who have continued to progress in their career despite the obstacles put in front of them.”

Rebecca Vastola Managing Associate

San Francisco

Rebecca is an Associate in the San Francisco office of Orrick’s Technology Companies Group. She advises her clients on key legal issues and obstacles, including negotiating investment terms and structuring deals, maintaining good corporate governance practices, navigating employee and contractor equity, and preparing for exit.

Calvin Vaughan Associate

Washington, D.C.

His practice focuses on transactions in the energy and infrastructure sectors.

Andres Vega Managing Associate

Washington, D.C.

He regularly represents project developers and investors in energy project finance transactions, including tax equity and debt financing, M&A, joint ventures, project development and a broad range of corporate matters. His prior experience includes international and multijurisdictional financing and development of energy projects in Mexico and across Africa, including Equatorial Guinea, South Africa, Nigeria, and Egypt.

Christopher Vejnoska Senior Counsel to the Office of General Counsel

San Francisco

In his practice, Chris has been a first chair trial lawyer with more than 30 years of experience handling high stakes, precedent-setting cases, particularly in the products liability arena. His most recent products liability engagements included serving as trial counsel for a large talc company, including trying to conclusion one of the very first mesothelioma cases against it, and leading a cross-office international and national team defending multiple Chinese companies in a historic MDL. At times, a client asked Chris to lead five or more trial teams in products cases in a single year.

Chris also has acted as national counsel for companies facing thousands of mass tort product liability claims and complex, multiparty class action litigation, and has counseled multinational companies entangled in lengthy, enterprise-threatening litigation and negotiated legal and business solutions involving billions of dollars. He has extensive experience in complex and commercial litigation, ranging from insurance recovery disputes to trade secrets issues, and has significant experience in assisting foreign aerospace companies with international arbitration disputes with first-tier aircraft manufacturers.

Earlier in his career, Chris represented large public companies in mergers, acquisitions, strategic investments and private financings; private companies in initial public offerings; and emerging growth companies in general corporate matters. Chris' transactional experience also offers clients a unique perspective on risk mitigation strategies to avoid costly litigation in the future.

Chris also chaired Orrick’s Risk Management Committee and served on its Operations Team.  Prior to joining the firm, Chris was a partner at Clifford Chance and a partner at Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, where he was a member of the Policy Committee, a member of the Executive Committee, Chair of the Risk Management Committee and Chair of the Hiring Committee.

Deepa Vekaria Associate

London

Her experience includes advising arrangers, investment managers, issuers, lenders and originators on a range of capital market transactions, including warehouse arrangements, issuances and retention financings. Deepa has recently advised clients such as Barclays, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Och-Ziff and PGIM.

Prior to joining Orrick, Deepa worked in the capital markets practice of a leading international law firm in London.

Luciano Vella Senior Associate

Milan

Luciano Vella has extensive experience in advising Italian and international clients on employment law and industrial relations, both in contentious and non-contentious matters.

He assists companies across a wide range of industries with the day-to-day management of employment relationships, providing strategic and operational advice on all aspects of HR management — from employment contracts and hiring practices to the termination of employment relationships. His practice includes advising on disciplinary procedures, the implementation of compensation and benefits policies, employee transfers and secondments, and the negotiation of various types of workplace agreements.

Luciano has gained significant experience in managing workforce restructuring processes and extraordinary corporate transactions, supporting clients in the design and implementation of individual and collective incentive plans, as well as in related disputes.

He has developed specific expertise in health and safety at work, both in terms of regulatory compliance and in managing employer liability and litigation, with a particular focus on the implementation of health and safety governance structures, delegation of functions, and their alignment with organizational models under Legislative Decree 231/2001, as well as in dealings with labor and safety authorities.

Luciano is the author of numerous articles on employment law, published in specialized journals and on industry platforms, and regularly speaks at conferences and webinars.

He graduated with top marks from the University of Pisa in 2015 and has been a member of the Milan Bar Association since 2018.

He is fluent in Italian and English.

Stephen Venuto Partner

Silicon Valley; San Francisco

The Daily Journal has named Stephen one of the Top 100 Lawyers in California (chosen regardless of specialty). Stephen was Facebook’s first lawyer and has advised many other leading companies at critical stages of their lifecycles including Anthropic AI, Asana, Instagram, Pinterest, Warby Parker and WETA Digital.

Stephen cares about the teams he counsels and thrives on providing practical business advice. When The American Lawyer named Stephen “Dealmaker of the Year”, it recognized his corporate work and representation of Instagram in its sale to Facebook and quoted a prominent Instagram board member as saying that he “is an outstanding lawyer, but he’s also an outstanding business partner . . . someone who cares about everybody [who's] involved in a company.” In addition to naming Stephen to its list of Top 100 Lawyers in California, The Daily Journal has named him to its Top Emerging Companies Lawyers list, and Chambers and Partners has recognized and ranked Stephen in two separate categories for several consecutive years.

Numerous standout technology companies and their founders have turned to Stephen for corporate representation at all stages of their life-cycles. Most of his counseling is with technology disruptive clients in fast-growth fields such as artificial intelligence, information technology, metaverse, fin-tech, SaaS, gaming, media and entertainment. His recent prominent counseling includes companies in the artificial intelligence,  metaverse and gaming spaces. For example he recently advised WETA Digital in its metaverse and gaming related asset sale to Unity Software (for $1.6 billion)  and has advised Anthropic AI from formation through each of its financings.

Martha Verhaelen Career Associate

Düsseldorf

She advises start-ups from their incorporation through their first financing rounds into the growth phase, as well as on internationalization projects. Martha works with venture capital, as well as corporate venture capital investors on start-up financing projects.

Prior to joining Orrick, Martha worked as a trainee lawyer for another international law firm and United Nations Women in Bonn.

Bryan Victor Partner

Sacramento

Bryan has experience with many structures used in public finance, including master trust indentures, fixed and variable rate bonds, direct purchases, delayed delivery bonds, insurance, letters of credit and other credit or liquidity agreements; commercial paper programs; conversions and reofferings. Bryan has extensive experience working with stand alone hospitals, health care clinics and large health systems. He provides annual and bi-annual federal securities law training for staff of the State of California Treasurer's Office, the State of California Department of Finance, the State Controller's Office, CalPERs and other state agencies and applies that securities law knowledge on health care transactions. Bryan is the lead partner for general public finance matters for the State of California as bond and disclosure counsel, including the issuance of general obligation commercial paper notes, general obligation bonds and revenue anticipation notes, negotiation and review of credit and liquidity agreements related to such obligations and disclosure related to same.

Michelle Visser Partner

San Francisco

Michelle’s dedication to these cutting-edge areas of the law and technology over the past 20 years has earned her recognition from Chambers for Privacy & Data Security Litigation and as an up-and-coming lawyer in Privacy & Data generally – where she is described as “equally capable in both compliance and enforcement elements of privacy regulation.”

As a litigator, Michelle is adept at developing novel legal arguments to protect clients in a world where innovation is outpacing regulation. She brings deep experience representing companies in regulatory investigations, data breach and privacy litigation involving the increasing web of statutes that pose statutory damages exposure to companies, such as the Illinois Biometric Privacy Act (BIPA), the California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA), and the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA), and other complex commercial claims. As a crisis manager, she also represents companies in incident response and enjoys working with diverse groups of stakeholders to mitigate business and reputational risks and achieve positive outcomes.

Michelle resides in California with her three children.