People

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 received a band 5 ranking in Employee Share Schemes & Incentives by Chambers UK 2025, is 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.

Nikita Shah Partner

Austin; San Francisco

Niki advises entrepreneurs, senior in-house leadership, and investors of technology companies at all stages and across a broad range of industries, including consumer internet, enterprise software, AI, fintech, edtech, delivery, healthcare, retail, digital media and sharing economy.

Leveraging a unique professional background, Niki is a trusted advisor to founders and provides strategic insights as outside general counsel to startups, from pre-seed to exit.

Niki has advised companies and venture capital firms on over 150 transactions, including venture capital financings, mergers and acquisitions, public offerings and secondary offerings, with an aggregate transaction value in excess of $20 billion.

Niki’s prior company-side representations include Yelp, DocuSign (IPO team), Blue Nile, Origin Materials, Orbus Therapeutics, Singularity Education Group, SmartRecruiters, and TravelBank, among others.

Niki has also represented leading venture capital firms and strategic investors, including a16z, Battery Ventures, General Catalyst, Institutional Venture Partners, Spark Capital, SVB Capital, Temasek and Founders Fund, among others.

Before joining Orrick, Niki served as the Associate General Counsel at MasterClass, where she provided legal and strategic counsel on corporate and equity matters, BD and strategic partnerships, product development, content and production, marketing, IP, and data privacy. Niki started her emerging companies and venture practice at Cooley LLP and advised startup companies in-house at Techstars.

Adil Shaikh Managing Associate

Austin

Adil Shaikh is an experienced patent litigator, adept at handling cases from their initial phases through to trial. With appearances in over 120 cases, he consistently strives to achieve the best possible outcomes for his clients in every engagement.

With extensive technical knowledge and experience, Adil offers invaluable insights and assistance in intellectual property cases. As a former software engineer, he possesses a unique ability to understand clients' innovations, communicate effectively with inventors, scientists, and expert witnesses, and explain complex technologies in clear, comprehensible terms. His practice focuses on patents, particularly in complex software technology and semiconductors.

Before transitioning to the legal industry, Adil held software engineering roles at Sabre Corporation, specializing in data engineering and big data systems. He also gained experience in software development at Nokia Corp and Cisco Systems. Additionally, Adil co-founded a company dedicated to technical education and recruitment.

Evgeniya Shakina Senior Associate

Washington, D.C.

As part of her practice, Evgeniya advises clients on economic sanctions administered by the U.S. Department of the Treasury (OFAC), export control regulations (EAR/ITAR), the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and federal procurement regulations.

She also has experience assisting clients in unfair trade practice disputes, including antidumping and countervailing duty proceedings, CFIUS/Exon-Florio examinations of foreign investment, and trade compliance due diligence in corporate transactions.

Rachel G. Shalev Senior Associate

New York

Rachel represents clients in high-stakes, complex litigation. She has argued successfully in federal and state appellate courts and has been the lead drafter of briefs and dispositive motions in both state and federal court and the U.S. Supreme Court. Rachel’s experience litigating and advising clients covers a wide range of substantive areas. She focuses in particular on tough questions of constitutional law, statutory interpretation, and intellectual property. Rachel also maintains an active pro bono practice.

Prior to joining Orrick, Rachel served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer, Judge Cornelia T.L. Pillard of the D.C. Circuit, and Judge William A. Fletcher of the Ninth Circuit. Rachel received her J.D. from Yale Law School, where she served as a student director of the Supreme Court Advocacy Clinic and as Essays Editor of the Yale Law Journal. She graduated from Williams College and received master’s degrees from University College London and University of St. Andrews, which she attended as a Marshall Scholar.