People

Francesco Seassaro Special Counsel

Milan

In these areas, he has been involved both in domestic and cross-border transactions, advising corporate clients, private equity funds and banks. In the context of private equity transactions, he has acted as legal counsel of the issuers in the listing of their shares in Italian regulated markets. He has developed an extensive knowledge of the aviation area, with specific regard to the purchase, sale and lease of aircraft and the financing of the acquisition of aircraft.

Before joining Orrick, Francesco was employed from 1980 to 1981 as in-house counsel by Italtel S.p.A., an Italian telecommunication company. From 1982 to 1988 he worked as an associate at Studio Legale De Berti & Jacchia, an Italian law firm based in Milan. From 1989 to 1997 he was at first an associate and then a partner at the London office of Carnelutti, an Italian law firm. From 1998 to 2008 he was a partner at Vita Samory, Fabbrini e Associati, an Italian law firm, working at the London office of the firm until 1999 and then at the main office in Milan since 2000.

He has been a lecturer at conferences and has written articles in English legal publications on corporate and banking matters.

Lauren Seaton Innovation Attorney Litigation

Orange County

Lauren supports and leads projects aimed at optimizing client service delivery and increasing efficiencies. Based in Orange County, she collaborates across offices, practice groups, and departments to streamline legal processes through the integration of technology, automation, and data-driven solutions. Her responsibilities include developing best practices, supporting the firm’s data strategy, and spearheading the rollout and adoption of legal technology within the business units.

Prior to moving into this role, Lauren was a Senior Associate in Orrick’s Securities Litigation group, where she represented and advocated for clients in complex litigation, government regulatory matters, and internal investigations. These experiences have made Lauren well-suited to design and improve client-facing solutions, create tailored workflows, and enhance collaboration with clients and third parties. Her familiarity with legal technology and enthusiasm for leveraging AI in legal services align perfectly with Orrick’s commitment to innovation.

Her diverse legal experience, combined with her proactive and innovative approach, positions her as a key player in Orrick’s ongoing efforts to lead the industry in delivering high-quality, efficient legal services.

Matthew Sebastian Sr Analytics Project Attorney

Wheeling, W.V. (GOIC)

The Discovery Analytics and Review Services group prioritizes using technology and project management discipline to assist firm attorneys with litigation and transactional tasks, particularly tasks that involve large volumes of data and documents.

This work includes using early case assessment technology to analyze, categorize and cull data. Matthew also manages teams of skilled professionals performing document review, redaction, analysis, production and drafting privilege logs. He assists the litigation team to prepare for trial, including drafting deposition summaries, factual memoranda and exhibit charts. Matthew also works with practice office attorneys on transactional tasks, including contract review and due diligence.

Justin Seccombe Senior Associate

Chicago

His experience includes representing clients in high-stakes litigation throughout the country in matters concerning federal and state consumer protection statutes, as well as complex commercial disputes. He further advises and represents clients in regulatory, supervisory, and enforcement matters before federal and state agencies including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), and states attorneys general. Justin assists clients through all aspects of litigation, including briefing dispositive and discovery motions, managing large-scale discovery reviews and productions, preparing expert reports, arguing motions in both state and federal court, opposing class certification, and conducting settlement negotiations. With respect to enforcement matters, Justin represents clients through supervisory actions and assists them with the PARR (Potential Action and Request for Response) and NORA (Notice and Opportunity to Respond and Advise) process, crafting responses and working with regulators to reach favorable outcomes.

Prior to joining Orrick, Justin was an associate at Buckley LLP. Before practicing law, Justin worked with sports agents for some of the most successful players in the National Football League, including league MVPs, Super Bowl winners, and numerous rookies of the year.

Susanna Sedrak Partner

Santa Monica

Susanna assists clients by providing federal and state compliance advice, including completing surveys on various mortgage, consumer, and commercial-lending topics, such as requirements related to fair lending, debt collection, preemption, bank partnership models, interest on escrow, borrower correspondence and navigating communications with Limited English Proficiency borrowers. She analyzes lending and servicing practices in light of federal laws such as the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), and Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), and their accompanying regulations, as well as assists with preemption determinations.

She is a co-founder of Winnow, an innovative platform that allows financial and lending institutions to generate custom state regulatory surveys and searches by business type, license, product and geographic market. She is also the Chair of the Webinars & Roundtables Subcommittee of the American Bar Association's Consumer Financial Services Committee and was a member of the of Mortgage Banking Association’s 2014 class of Future Leaders.
 

Prior to joining Orrick, Susanna was a partner at Buckley LLP. Before Buckley, she was an associate at Winston & Strawn.

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.

Ryan Selis Of Counsel

Washington, D.C.

An experienced corporate lawyer and strategic advisor, Ryan specializes in guiding high-growth companies and investors through the legal complexities of the startup ecosystem.  With deep experience in the technology sector, he provides comprehensive legal counsel to emerging companies throughout their lifecycle, including startup formation and structuring, venture capital financings, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate and securities law compliance. Ryan also has significant expertise in representing venture capital and private equity investors in financings, growth equity investments, and buy-side and sell-side M&A transactions.  His ability to navigate the fast-paced and evolving technology landscape has made him a trusted partner to clients building transformative businesses.

Ryan's company-side representations include Mercor (AI-powered hiring platform), Magic.dev (automated software engineering), Sapien (autonomous coworkers for financial analysis), Taktile (decision-making models for risk assessment by fintechs), Flower (federated AI framework), Paradigm (AI-powered spreadsheets), 15Five (continuous performance management platform), Certa (third-party vendor compliance and risk management), Uprise (AI-powered financial advisory optimization), Archer Faris (multi-agent security), Better Trucks (last mile carrier), Allium (enterprise blockchain data platform), Coda Project (acquired by Grammarly), Enter Health (AI-first revenue cycle management), and many other exciting startups.

Select Engagements:

• Magic AI - $320 million Series C financing, with contributions from Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross, CapitalG, Eric Schmidt, and others
• Mercor.io - $30 million Series A financing, led by Benchmark with participation from General Catalyst, Peter Thiel, Jack Dorsey, Adam D'Angelo, and others
• Sapien - $8.7 million Series Seed financing, led by General Catalyst with participation from Neo
• Coda - sale to Grammarly 
• Taktile - $20 million Series A financing, co-led by Index Ventures and Tiger Global
• Flower Labs - $20 million Series A financing, led by Felicis Ventures and First Spark
• 15Five - $52 million Series C financing, led by Quad Partners with participation by Next47, Origin Ventures, Edison Partners and others
• Certa - $35 million Series B financing, co-led by Fin VC and Vertex Ventures
• Allium - $16.5 million Series A financing, led by Theory Ventures, and $4.25 million Series Seed financing co-led by Kleiner Perkins and Amplify Partners
• Better Trucks - $15 million Series A financing led by Lobby Capital, Corazon Capital, Venture 53 and others
• Uprise - $3.3 million Seed financing, led by Blank Ventures
• Medicxi, Aditum Bio, Atlas Venture – $20 million Series B investment in Versanis Bio and acquisition of Versanis Bio by Eli Lilly for $1.925 billion
• Marcy Venture Partners - Investment in The Long Drink Company
• Louis Dreyfus Company CVC - Investment in Natural Fiber Welding
• Humaans - $15 million Series A financing, led by Lachy Groom
• Quell - $10 million Series A financing, led by Tencent, Khosla Ventures, Heartcore Capital and others
• Telmai - $5.5 million Series Seed financing, co-led by Glasswing Ventures and .406 Ventures
• Simpl - $40 million Series B, led by Valar Ventures and IA Ventures
• Atalaya Capital Management - Formation of private equity vehicle with Waterfall Asset Management and strategic growth investment into OnPoint Warranty Solutions
  
• HPS Investment Partners – Formation of private equity vehicle with with Wildcat Capital Management and strategic growth investment into Sculptor Real Estate
  

Mark Seneca Partner

Silicon Valley

Mark has a particular focus on the technology sector, having led hundreds of buy-side and sell-side transactions involving prominent high-tech serial acquirers, unicorns and venture back companies. His sell-side work involves multiple acquisitions by Google, Facebook, Salesforce.com, VMware, Microsoft, Intel, IBM, Adobe, Yahoo! and Twitter. These deals include his high profile work for Mosaic ML on its US$1.3 billion acquisition by Databricks, Cruise Automation in its acquisition by General Motors, Nest Labs in its US$3.2 billion acquisition by Google, and Instagram in its US$1.0 billion acquisition by Facebook, which was ranked one of the top 10 largest valued private tech M&A deals in the U.S. in 2012. In an interview with Bloomberg Law for a “Rainmakers” episode, Mark provided a substantive analysis of the Instagram deal, including its industry precedent and influence (click here).

On the buy-side, Mark has served as lead M&A counsel for top public company acquirers (Yelp, Google, Yahoo! and Intellisync) as well as private company serial acquirers (Stripe, Pinterest and Social Finance).

Maria Sergeyeva Senior Associate

Washington, D.C.

Maria's previous experience as a member of the Mergers and Acquisitions group is instrumental in her reviews of the trade aspects of various M&A and other cross-border transactions.  

Maria draws upon her experience in Washington, D.C., Moscow (Russia) and Almaty (Kazakhstan) to approach her work with a broad perspective on international trade-related and other matters. Prior to joining Orrick, Maria worked at the Office of the General Counsel of a multilateral development bank, handled tax and legal matters at one of the Big Four accounting firms, and oversaw the design and implementation of an export compliance program for an international development firm and a U.S. government contractor.

Laure Seror Of Counsel

Paris

Laure advises French and international banks and financial institutions as well as sponsors and borrowers on French and cross-border financing transactions. She is particularly active in structured finance (including securitization transactions and debt funds) and energy and infrastructure project transactions. She also regularly advises on real estate finance transactions.

Prior to joining Orrick in 2017, Laure was an associate for five years in the Banking & Finance department of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

Rebecca Servian Partner

London

Her expertise includes the creation of both equity-based and cash-based incentive plans, including the full range of HMRC tax-advantaged plans such as EMI plans and CSOPs, working on the incentives aspects of corporate transactions, including both venture capital and private equity investment, public company takeovers, IPOs, and company reorganizations. She considers the impact of the transaction on the share plans for employees and implements new incentive arrangements following investment into companies and businesses. She also guides listed companies on how to reward their executive directors in accordance with market practice and best corporate governance.

Rebecca is a member of the Share Plan Lawyers Organisation and a contributor to various publications (such as the Practical Law Company). She is a “Star Associate” under the Chambers’ legal directory, a “Leading Individual” under The Legal 500’s legal directory and has been recognized by MergerLinks as one of the top 30 most active up-and-coming tax lawyers in EMEA.

Nathan Shaffer Partner

San Francisco

Nathan represents leading technology companies and achieves results in cases where their most valuable assets are on the line. Nathan’s practice includes federal and state court litigation with an equal split between plaintiff and defense-side representations. He has obtained multiple preliminary injunctions for his clients, won dispositive motions, and represented his clients on appeal.

Nathan focuses on issues at the intersection of high technology and intellectual property law. He regularly represents and counsels clients in disputes involving software licensing, emerging aspects of trademark and copyright law, IP ownership, disputes involving technology products and IP, and open-source licensing.

As a trade secret litigator, Nathan has protected his clients’ intellectual property in fast-paced scenarios involving emergency forensic investigations followed closely by obtaining temporary restraining orders and injunctions.

Prior to joining Orrick, Nathan served as a law clerk to Judge Dorothy W. Nelson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Judge John A. Mendez of the Eastern District of California.