People

Kevin Hale Of Counsel

Los Angeles

Kevin has also served as bond counsel in conduit financings by the California Educational Facilities Authority (CEFA), the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank (I-Bank), the California Statewide Communities Development Authority (CSCDA) and several local agency issuers for the benefit of educational and cultural facilities throughout California.

Kevin also has extensive experience working as counsel to underwriters and placement agents and is routinely engaged and consulted on disclosure and structuring issues by national and regional investment banks working with public sector clients.

Prior to joining the firm, he was an associate with Wehner & Perlman where he had significant responsibility in the litigation of actions for fraud and securities fraud under California and federal securities laws, both civil and criminal.

Melissa Hall Project Attorney

Wheeling, W.V. (GOIC)

Melissa works with the firms various practice groups to increase efficiency and reduce costs for client services. Her work is primarily transactional, concentrating predominantly on financing matters. Her project portfolio encompasses a spectrum of tasks, including M&A due diligence reviews, capitalization table audits, corporate audits, and various projects associated with disclosure obligations.

Prior to joining Orrick, Melissa dedicated her practice to real estate and the intricacies of oil and gas law, specifically within the Appalachian Basin.

Melanie Hallums Senior Career Associate

Wheeling, W.V. (GOIC)

Before joining Orrick, Melanie served as a law clerk and judicial assistant to the Honorable Thomas M. Hardiman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and as a law clerk to the Honorable Denise Cote of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.  She was previously an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, and a litigation associate at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York.

Melanie received her law degree from Vanderbilt Law School, where she was an Articles Editor for the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law.  She graduated from Vanderbilt University.

David Halperin Senior Advisor

Before attending law school, David served as an officer in the U.S. Navy from 1966-1970, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Commander (U.S.N.R.) and serving from 1969-70 as a Special Assistant to Admiral E.R. Zumwalt, Commander of Naval Forces, Vietnam and later Chief of Naval Operations. From 1970-1971, he served as Personal Assistant to Dr. Henry Kissinger, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. After law school, David joined Davis Polk & Wardell in New York from 1974-1976 before moving to the Hong Kong office of Coudert Brothers in 1976. He became a partner of Coudert Brothers in 1983 and joined the Hong Kong office of Orrick in 2005. 

Ashley Halvorsen Senior Associate

Los Angeles

Ashley represents issuers, underwriters, servicers, lenders, and other market participants in connection with securitizations, asset financings and sales, and negotiation of lending facilities. Ashley's practice encompasses a variety of asset-backed securities, including residential mortgage-backed securities and credit and charge card receivables.

Amari L. Hammonds Senior Associate

Los Angeles

Before joining Orrick, Amari was the 2019-2021 Earl Warren Fellow in the Office of the Solicitor General at the California Department of Justice. There, she co-authored the Department’s briefs defending the Affordable Care Act in California v. Texas, which won the National Association of Attorneys General’s Supreme Court Best Brief Awards in both 2020 and 2021. Amari also received two Attorney General’s team awards for her work on that case and in another case challenging the Trump administration’s border wall. Amari authored or co-authored several other briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court and the California Supreme Court, and argued before the Ninth Circuit.

Amari served as a law clerk to the Honorable Merrick B. Garland of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar of the California Supreme Court.

Prior to law school, Amari worked for the Mayor of New York City, Obama for America, the Democratic National Convention Committee, and two public relations firms in New York City.

Loren Hampton Associate

Washington, D.C.

Loren's practice spans diverse employment related issues and other complex business litigation. Loren received her J.D. from the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings). While in law school, she served as the Co-President for the Black Law Students Association and a tutor for the Legal Education Opportunity Program.

Siobhan Handley Chief of Staff

New York

In collaboration with the firm’s leadership team, she focuses on designing and implementing programs to recruit, inspire and advance the best legal and staff talent.

Siobhan previously served as Orrick’s Managing Director for Resources. In that role, she spearheaded the development of the firm’s innovative talent model—the first of its kind in a major law firm—which replaces the traditional associate lockstep advancement system with merit-based advancement. As chair of the firm’s Talent Committee, she oversees Orrick’s lawyer training and performance feedback program – which is one of the most rigorous in the market. She also has led the creation of a range of new lawyer and professional staff roles.

Siobhan brings to this role extensive experience on the front line of client service, having been a partner in the firm’s product liability litigation and mass tort defense group. For more than a decade, she was a member of the Orrick team that acted as National Counsel to Union Carbide Corporation in connection with asbestos-related personal injury lawsuits and served as lead trial counsel in cases across the country. Siobhan was one of the key trial counsel in the highly-publicized landmark trial in Texas State Court, Brazoria County, where Kelly-Moore Paint Company sued Union Carbide for $1.4 billion in compensatory damages and $4.2 billion in punitive damages that resulted in a complete defense verdict. In addition, she served as trial counsel for significant product liability cases for other clients including Wyeth and Flexible Products.

Heather Hanlon Managing Associate

London

Heather has experience in drafting, reviewing and negotiating a variety of employment contractual documentation including, employment contracts, settlement agreements, staff handbooks and policies. She also has experience advising on a variety of employment disputes including race discrimination, disability discrimination and unfair dismissal claims.

Victor Hanna Partner

San Francisco

He is experienced in both debt and equity financing structures, including bilateral and syndicated facilities, asset- and cash-flow-based facilities, mezzanine, back-leverage, bridge and construction loans, as well as cash and tax equity financings and the formation and structuring of joint ventures.

Prior to joining Orrick, Victor practiced at top-ranked global law firms where he focused on project finance within the energy and infrastructure sectors. Following law school, he was a research associate at Stanford University’s Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance, where he conducted an in-depth comparative analysis of the large-scale deployment and integration of renewable energy in Germany, California and Texas, which formed the basis of a broader comparative study published in the Stanford Environmental Law Journal and the textbook, Renewable Energy: Law, Policy and Practice.

Dr. Odey Hardan Associate

Düsseldorf

Prior to joining Orrick, Odey served as a research assistant to a distinguished chair focusing on European law, where he authored several academic papers. Throughout his doctoral studies, he delved deeply into the intricate realms of European, international, and data protection law.

Additionally, Odey contributed to significant legal opinions and gained practical experience by supporting the representation of the German Federal Government in pivotal cases before the Federal Constitutional Court, including the proceedings on the European Patent Convention, CETA and the EU-Singapore Free Trade Agreement.

Before starting his legal practice, he also worked as a research assistant for an international UK-headquartered law firm.

James Hargrove Partner

Geneva; London

James has a particular specialization in arbitrations relating to energy, commodities, trading, finance and technology (he is particularly active in thought leadership on tech and arbitration issues).

Prior to joining Orrick, James practiced international arbitration and litigation at several international law firms in Geneva and London. James was, among other things, head of the Russia and CIS dispute resolution practice and has deep proficiency in Russia related-disputes and investigations and associated offshore litigation, applications and asset identification, tracing and enforcement.