People

Josh Pollick Partner

Santa Monica

Josh represents high-growth technology companies and venture capital firms in many areas, including corporate and securities law, corporate formations, venture capital financings, mergers and acquisitions, public offerings, secondary offerings and SPAC transactions.

Josh was recognized as a Fintech Rising Star by Law360 for his work representing innovative companies such as Accrue, Crexi, Dave, Deel, Dub, Get Covered, Trullion and Stripe. He has been nationally recognized by Chambers and Partners USA and Legal500 for his work representing startups and venture capital funds.

Josh’s company-side representations also include high-growth AI and SaaS companies, such as Speak and Supabase, energy tech companies such as Radiant Nuclear and Zeno Power, and healthtech companies such as Grow Therapy, Pearl and Saferide Health.  

In addition to his company-side representations, Josh has represented leading venture capital firms and other strategic investors, including Bonfire, Coatue, Darsana Capital, D1 Capital, Ground Up Ventures, Pathbreaker Ventures, Upfront Ventures and Wonder Ventures.

Josh has significant buy-side and sell-side M&A experience, including representing Deel in its acquisitions of CapBase, Legalpad, Hofy, Payspace, Roots, Zavvy and Zeitgold.

Brianna Pomatico Senior Associate

New York

Brianna's practice focuses on cross-border comparative employment law, including global business immigration. She works with clients to address critical questions related to the evolution and growth of their global workforce, including international employment contracts, employee handbooks and policies, contingent worker considerations, performance management, benefits, HR data privacy compliance, and equity compensation. Brianna also advises on the global employment aspects of corporate transactions.

Prior to joining Orrick, Brianna practiced corporate immigration law, gaining years of experience facilitating global mobility for large corporations, startups, and individuals alike. 

Josh Pond Partner

Washington, D.C.

Josh is a Global and U.S. Chambers-ranked Section 337 advocate before the U.S. International Trade Commission. Legal 500 lists Josh among the 17 Leading Partners before the ITC categorized as the strongest partners in their field, leading on market-leading deals. He is also a D.C. Super Lawyer in IP litigation, and Patexia has consistently ranked him as a “most-active” and "best performing" ITC practitioner for each of the past five years.

Josh’s practice centers on blocking and defending imports before the ITC. He regularly serves as lead ITC counsel for domestic and international companies – particularly those from Asia and Europe – in Section 337 investigations. Over the past decade, Josh has been to ITC trial for over a dozen Fortune Global 500 companies. Clients and peers alike praise Josh as “an ITC guru” as well as “…a strong ITC litigator and also a please person to work with or against.” He focuses on matters involving brand protection, patent, trademark, and copyright infringement, international trade secret theft and unfair competition claims.

In addition to the ITC, Josh is active before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, U.S. District Courts and the Federal Circuit. Recent patent-validity challenge highlights at the USPTO’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board include a complete five-patent Inter Partes Review defense victory, as well as a two-patent invalidating IPR win, affirmed at the Federal Circuit, as well as a key patent defense through Ex Parte Reexamination. Josh’s most recent District Court win was a jury verdict in favor of his client ScentAir in Delaware. Abroad, China has featured prominently among recent global forums for Josh’s matters, as well as Canada and Germany.

Josh’s IP portfolio strategies are catered to meeting enforcement challenges. His clients include companies ranging from startups to multinationals in electronics, consumer products, telecommunications, mechanical and medical devices, and biochemicals.

A founding member of the Advisory Council to Georgetown's Institute for Technology Law & Policy, Josh also has been a fellow in the Hispanic National Bar Association’s IP Law Institute. He was a founding editor of the ITC Trial Lawyers Association’s 337 Reporter Round-Up.

Josh served in the U.S. Marine Corps as a field artillery captain. He was deployed to the Persian Gulf and awarded the Defense Meritorious Service Medal. As part of his pro bono service, Josh advocates for fellow veterans with the “Lawyers Serving Warriors” team of the National Veterans Legal Services Program.

Prior to joining Orrick, Josh co-led a global law firm’s ITC Section 337 litigation practice.

Bianca Ponziani Managing Associate

New York

She has partnered with start-ups and Fortune 500 companies to develop comprehensive privacy and cybersecurity policies and procedures that comply with U.S., EU and UK law and self-regulatory frameworks, including U.S. state privacy laws; the EU and UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR); the CAN-SPAM Act; the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA); the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTC Act); and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

Bianca helps clients prepare for and respond to crisis security incidents, including by advising on personal data breach notification obligations, working closely with cyber forensics experts, engaging with law enforcement, and responding to regulatory inquiries.

She also provides clients with practical guidance in complex and multijurisdictional corporate transactions to help navigate attendant privacy and cybersecurity risks.

Ekaterina Popoff Senior Associate

New York

Ekaterina (Katya) Popoff is experienced in closing complex deals, acting for issuers and underwriters both in the U.S. and abroad in structured securities offerings across a broad range of asset classes including residential mortgages, credit cards, oil and gas assets and commercial loans, and structures, including public and private offerings, repos, CLOs and cost recovery bonds. Drawing on her background as an entrepreneur, she approaches her work with a pragmatic and solution-focused mindset, ensuring that clients receive efficient and practical solutions.

Katya is a passionate and dedicated mentor to junior associates, ensuring that her colleagues receive support and guidance to help them advance their skills and gain confidence. Her other areas of interest include designing, creating and refining deal management systems on complex deals, including learning new strategies, implementing workflows for the associate team to follow and refining approaches from prior deals.

Before joining Orrick, Katya practiced in structured finance at a leading national firm in Canada. Prior to that she founded a specialty tea producer and wholesaler that sold packaged tea blends into the U.S., Canadian and international markets. Under her leadership, the business won numerous awards for taste, packaging design and marketing. She is an avid reader and has recently rekindled her interest in cycling as a means to explore the outdoors and discover new places.

Scott Porter Senior Corporate Counsel

San Francisco

Scott was an associate at the firm from 1998 until 2006 and has experience in mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, securities law and general corporate matters.

Prior to joining Orrick, he was an associate at Pillsbury Madison & Sutro LLP from 1997 to 1998.

Gerald Porter Senior Associate

Los Angeles; Santa Monica

Jerry specializes in high-stakes patent disputes, excelling at distilling complex technical issues into clear, persuasive arguments. He is experienced across all stages of litigation, including pre-suit investigations, motion practice, fact and expert discovery, taking and defending depositions, arguing in federal court, pre-trial filings, trial, post-trial briefing, and appeals. He also has significant experience in patent prosecution before the Patent Office and in inter partes review proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

Using his engineering background, Jerry engages effectively with technical professionals and swiftly grasps new technologies. He provides tailored solutions for clients in diverse industries, including semiconductors, medical devices, biotechnology, cryptocurrency, cybersecurity, and audio and telecommunications.

Jerry also advises clients on managing and protecting their intellectual property portfolios, helping them navigate current challenges while anticipating future risks in a rapidly evolving tech landscape.

Leveraging both his technical and legal expertise, Jerry crafts innovative strategies to protect intellectual property and resolve disputes efficiently, always with a focus on achieving favorable outcomes. 

Meredith Post Chief Growth & Integration Officer

Silicon Valley

Merrie supports candidates through each stage in the recruiting conversation. She also ensures that every lateral partner who joins Orrick has a committed sponsor and an actionable plan for business and social integration.

Merrie brings to this work a deep understanding of the legal market, and in particular, the lateral partner recruiting market, compensation and integration. Over the course of her career, she has helped hundreds of partners make successful moves. She previously led Hudson Gate Legal, a search firm, where she focused on partner-level searches. Prior to that, she served as Director of Attorney Development at Cadwalader. She began her career as a corporate associate at Debevoise.

When she’s not talking to top legal talent, Merrie can be found on a spin bike, visiting a great spa, taking a hip hop class, traveling and spending quality time with her husband Jason and sons Charlie and Alex.

George Pothoulakis Partner

Boston

George is specialized in all areas of general corporate/securities law and in a wide variety of transactions (ex. venture financings, secondary offerings, redomestications, M&A and public offerings). His practice spans the entire corporate lifecycle, from inception to exit/liquidity, and includes the representation of companies and investors from various industries (ex. life sciences, health tech, energy tech, A.I, machine learning, robotics and blockchain). 

In addition to his extensive experience in private practice, George previously served as the lead lawyer of Boehringer Ingelheim's U.S.-based venture fund, where he oversaw and supported all legal aspects of the venture fund's investment activities in the United States and Canada.  During his time there, George also supported the venture fund's parent pharma company as lead counsel in several global financing and M&A transactions.

Darren Pouliot Senior Associate

London

Darren is a dual-qualified American lawyer and solicitor-advocate of England and Wales. He has an established record of working closely with clients across the finance, commodities, energy, life sciences and technology industries on all stages of disputes.

He represents clients in international arbitral proceedings under the major arbitral institutions' rules, as well as in American federal and state courts. He also holds Higher Rights of Audience with the Senior Courts of England & Wales. Darren maintains an active pro bono practice with a focus on criminal, habeas, and constitutional cases on appeal.

Darren also has direct in-house experience, having undertaken secondment to the fast-paced litigation department of one of the world's largest investment banks. He worked closely with the in-house team to assess litigation risk, advise stakeholders, and manage ongoing global litigations. He now frequently works with clients to develop their dispute resolution terms, processes, and trainings for other in-house functions.

Prior to joining Orrick, Darren earned his Juris Doctorate from Columbia Law School where he led the Columbia Business Law Review as its Editor-in-Chief and extensively studied federal constitutional, administrative, and criminal law. While there, he was a judicial intern in multiple levels of the U.S. federal judiciary, including the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, the Southern District of New York, and the District of New Jersey.

Marissa Prieto Senior Associate

Seattle

Her experience includes representing borrowers, sponsors, investors and lenders in a variety of financing and equity arrangements, including project and portfolio M&A, development financing, equity investments and joint ventures with wind, solar and other alternative energy projects.

Mark S. Puzella Partner

Boston

As a trial lawyer, Mark excels at handling accelerated, complex cases. For example, as lead counsel for New Balance, Mark won a swift six-month International Trade Commission (ITC) investigation concerning claims of trade dress infringement. And, as lead plaintiff counsel for Explorica in a trademark case, he won a jury verdict just ten weeks after filing the complaint. During that short span, the parties engaged in complete discovery, including taking and defending numerous fact and expert depositions. Clients routinely ask him to take over matters at the close of discovery, prior to trial, or on remand, which presents unique challenges and time constraints.

He is also skilled at explaining complex concepts and technology to judges and juries in a persuasive, intelligible style. For example, in the high-profile Supreme Court case ABC v. Aereo, he led the trial and appellate team’s presentation of the key technology. That presentation was the basis of the trial court’s denial of a preliminary injunction, and the Second Circuit’s affirmance of that decision.

Mark draws upon his litigation experience to help clients anticipate and avoid legal issues related to new technologies and brands. Mark has advised numerous technology and media companies on the creation, use, and delivery of content and helped clients assess whether their products will withstand investor and competitor scrutiny. He also has significant experience advising on branding and re-branding projects, including private brand or store brand clearance and risk assessments.

Mark’s exceptional record has earned him praise as a problem solver from client and peer surveys. Most recently, Chambers USA described him as "extremely skilled and effective." World Trademark Review 1000 has called him “intelligent, thoughtful and client-oriented” and “incredibly impressive.” The Legal 500 has described him as a “smart, creative” trial lawyer who “anticipates everything.” And in 2016, IP Law360 named two of his cases among the top ten trademark decisions of the year.