People

Michael C. Chow Partner

Orange County

Michael has worked on matters for companies including Canon Inc., Ricoh, Panasonic, eBay, eBay Enterprise, Foxconn, Robert Bosch, Realtek, Anker, Fujitsu Limited, and NVIDIA Corporation covering technologies such as eCommerce, Bluetooth, automotive technology, optical networking and telecommunication, graphics processing, and signal equalization.

Prior to law school, Michael was a mechanical engineer with M-E Engineers, Inc., in Culver City, Calif., where he designed the HVAC systems, including sizing equipment and devising airflows, for hospitals, sporting venues, and office buildings. His projects included Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital in Whittier, Calif., and Citizens Bank Arena in Ontario, Calif.

Charles C. Cardall Partner

San Francisco

He also has legal experience relating to both charter schools and the federal income tax classification of governmental and quasi-governmental entities. He has consulted on thousands of tax-exempt, build America and tax credit bond issues and has developed deep knowledge in almost every tax aspect of municipal finance. Private activity bonds for multifamily housing, solid waste, charter schools and independent schools are areas of particular focus in his practice, as are higher education, short-term and long-term working capital and the various forms of pooled financings. Chas also has advised numerous clients experiencing financial distress or bankruptcy in tax matters relating to their municipal bonds. Representative active clients include the State of California, the University of California, the Bay Area Toll Authority, and Charter School Capital.

As a legal and policy advocate, Chas represents both government and non-government clients in federal tax rulemaking matters and in IRS proceedings, including the various types of tax-exempt bond audits, voluntary compliance (VCAP) requests and requests for private letter rulings. He has successfully closed IRS examinations relating to solid waste, water and wastewater, working capital, healthcare, pooled, multifamily housing, and industrial development bond financings. He has obtained multiple private letter rulings and technical advice memoranda and has been integrally involved in numerous regulation and legislative projects. He has found that a close working relationship with IRS and Treasury Department personnel often is critical to obtaining good results for clients.

Thomas C. Mitchell Senior Counsel

San Francisco

He has represented secured and unsecured creditors, indenture trustees and others in bankruptcies and workouts in a variety of industries, including technology, rail transportation, air transportation, securities trading, commodities trading, supermarket, automobile sales, construction (including solar energy), retailing, convenience store, health care, telecommunications, film and television production, restaurant, home construction, real estate development, and equipment manufacturing.

He also has extensive experience in the structuring of asset securitization transactions to resolve bankruptcy and commercial law issues, representing issuers, underwriters, and credit enhancers with respect to many asset types, including mortgage loans (residential and commercial, U.S. and foreign), credit cards (secured and unsecured), trade receivables (U.S. and foreign), consumer and marketplace loans, property assessed clean energy (PACE), delinquent property tax receivables, tobacco settlement payments, attorneys’ fee payments in connection with the tobacco settlement, whole business securitization, home equity loans, auto loans, time share loans, excess servicing fees, manufactured home loans, aircraft leases, home relocation receivables, defaulted receivables, electric utility stranded costs, franchise loans, dealer floorplan loans, equipment leases, mutual fund fees, limited partnership interests, bank funds flows, annuity fees, health care receivables, insured student loans, repackaged securities, viatical loans, and insurance premium receivables. In addition, he has been responsible for commercial law and bankruptcy structuring of collateralized debt obligations, municipal derivatives, lease to service contracts, Indian tribe financings, and a wide variety of public finance transactions and project finance transactions. He also represents borrowers and lenders in secured transactions.

IFLR1000, US and California Restructuring and Insolvency, Notable Practitioner, 2021

Mentioned in the Structured Finance: Securitization category of The Legal 500 US 2021

Julia C. Riechert Partner

Silicon Valley

Julia helps companies navigate and resolve challenging workplace issues and has extensive experience in:

• Litigating and defeating harassment, discrimination, equal pay, disability and retaliation claims, including #MeToo and whistleblower allegations.
• Successfully resolving pre-litigation disputes and employment claims.
• The gig economy, independent contractor classification and agency temps, including the ABC test and California's Prop 22. 
• Wage & hour class and PAGA actions, including defeating class certification for technology and retail companies.
• Arbitration agreements, employment policies, anti-harassment training and workplace compliance best practices.
• Defending companies against government charges and audits, including unemployment insurance matters.
• Employee complaints, workplace investigations, layoffs and employment terminations.
• Providing advice and counsel on a wide variety of employment issues for small, medium and large companies.

Julia's clients include Lyft, PayPal, Airbnb, Instacart, Visa, Cisco, TaskRabbit, Beyond Meat, Unity Technologies, Williams-Sonoma, Inc., Dropbox and Gensler. Julia and her Orrick partner Lynne Hermle won the 2017 California Lawyer of the Year award in Labor and Employment from California Lawyer for their defense verdict for SpaceX in a high profile sex harassment, discrimination, retaliation and disability case. The Daily Journal also named their two jury trial wins for SpaceX as top verdicts in 2016 and 2017, both affirmed on appeal. Orrick was named Employment Group of the Year in 2018, 2019 and 2020 by Law360 and The Recorder has named Orrick the "Litigation Department of the Year: Labor and Employment" in California four times.

Side note: Julia also loves animal rescue and drinks lots of coffee.

Richard Coup Cyber & Privacy Career Assoc

Wheeling, W.V. (GOIC)

Richard works with cyber and data privacy attorneys and third party vendors to manage the review of documents and identification of notifiable individuals stemming from cyber incidents. This work includes using early case assessment technology to analyze, categorize and cull data. He also manages teams of skilled professionals performing document review, analysis and creation of breach notification deliverables. Richard develops and implements custom processes, procedures and technologies to better assist clients who are victims of cyber attacks and creates response plans to efficiently execute notification to individuals and regulators within demanding timeframes.

Richard has dedicated significant time to pro bono matters, including assisting trial counsel representing abused and neglected children.

Francesca Morency Partner

Washington, D.C.

A member of Orrick’s Complex Litigation & Dispute Resolution team, Francesca has extensive experience litigating challenging, high-stakes cases on behalf of her clients, including in some of the most high-profile and impactful wins for the NCAA.  In addition to her trial prowess, she also has conducted internal investigations and has been called upon to assist with regulatory and administrative challenges that her clients face day-to-day.

Francesca has guided the preparation of significant litigation and arbitration matters, from the drafting stage through discovery, depositions, expert and lay witnesses, and through motions and trial.  Having served on a secondment to a Fortune 5 client, she understands well the importance of effective and proactive case management.  Francesca provides empathetic, targeted advice to clients, and she moves matters forward with energy and efficiency.

Prior to working in private practice, Francesca served as a judicial clerk to the Honorable Judge Ivan D. Davis, United States Magistrate Judge in the Eastern District of Virginia.  In that role, she handled primarily civil discovery matters.

Colleen McDuffie Partner

Washington, D.C.

She brings a deep understanding of what drives innovative companies and a market reputation for efficiently and effectively getting intellectual property transactions and other complex commercial deals done.

Colleen counsels companies at all stages, from startups to Fortune 100, on the technology license and development agreements that drive their businesses, the strategic alliances that grow their industry relationships, and any other technology- and IP-driven agreements that are needed so companies can meet their business goals.

Colleen has extensive experience drafting and negotiating a wide variety of complex commercial agreements, including: intellectual property and data licenses; software development and license agreements; IT-focused services agreements, including consulting, development, hosting, and various “as-a-service” agreements; manufacturing and distribution agreements; joint venture and joint development agreements; and technology and intellectual property acquisition and disposition agreements. She also provides advice in connection with intellectual property and technology matters attendant to M&A and other corporate transactions.

She brings deep experience in the mobility technologies space, from connected vehicles and their supporting IT platforms to clean fuel technologies. She also has extensive experience in semiconductor design and fabrication, satellites and space technologies, telecommunications, and adtech.

Colleen has been involved in numerous pro bono activities, including: volunteering with voting rights and voter protection organizations; advising Georgetown’s Halcyon House social entrepreneurship fellows on intellectual property matters; hosting a start-up IP licensing webinar; and drafting and negotiating agreements for a PSA supporting equal wages for women.

Before becoming an attorney, Colleen spent several years working as a computer hardware and software engineer and performing research at a scientific think tank.

Carly Romanowicz Senior Associate

Boston

Carly is a Boston-based senior associate and litigator in our Intellectual Property group. Carly’s practice focuses on patent infringement litigation in federal district courts involving pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and biologics. She has a background in biomedical engineering, including medical device research & design, academic research, and business management.

Cacique Rich-Martinez Managing Associate

Houston

Cacique counsels  global energy companies, private equity funds and renewables developers on a wide range of transactions in the energy industry with a particular focus on renewable and traditional energy. He represents his clients in connection with the development, repowering, acquisition, and divestiture of wind, solar and energy storage projects, and the acquisition and divestiture of upstream oil and gas projects, the formation of joint ventures, and other corporate governance and legal due diligence matters.

Cacique served a combined 14 years in the Marine Corps and Marine Corps Reserve, and is a veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Christopher Witeck Partner

Washington, D.C.

Chris has an active practice representing financial services entities in negotiating a wide variety of corporate transactions, including company M&A, asset purchases and critical vendor and other third-party relationships. His clients include banks, mortgage companies and servicers, marketplace and other lenders, fintech and emerging payments providers and other business entities in the financial services industry.

Chris’ M&A work emphasizes transactions that involve regulatory risks and concerns or novel structures at the forefront of industry trends. He also represents buyers and sellers of mortgage loans and other consumer lending assets, including interests such as mortgage servicing rights. He regularly negotiates many varieties of servicing and subservicing contracts.

He also advises clients on outsourcing, joint venture and bank partner agreements, particularly in the fintech and e-commerce arena, providing years of experience addressing “true lender” issues. He also advises clients on loan repurchase and indemnity matters as well as corporate governance and compliance matters.

His regulatory practice focuses on advising lenders and servicers on matters involving the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), including affiliated business arrangements, portfolio retention transactions and vendor management issues.

Chris is recognized by Chambers USA for Fintech: Payments & Lending, which cited his capabilities “advising on regulatory compliance, commercial contracts matters and transactional work, with notable expertise handling M&A in the financial services sector.”

He was previously Co-Managing Partner and a member of the partner board at Buckley LLP. Before attending law school, he worked at the U.S. Department of State.

Carlo Trucco Partner

Milan

Carlo, a partner of the Technology Companies Group in Italy, advises funds, investors, and companies on a broad range of Venture Capital, Corporate Venture Capital, Tech M&A and M&A transactions.

His clients include the most active Venture Capital firms, High Growth technology companies operating in Italy as well as large Italian corporate groups that he advises on their M&A and CVC transactions across multiple industries, including high tech, agri-tech, fintech, life sciences and healthcare.

Carlo also has a longstanding experience in advising corporate clients, private equity firms and financial investors in the context of domestic and cross-border M&A and private equity transactions, as well as the sale of businesses, joint ventures, distressed M&A and corporate or indebtedness restructuring transactions.

Since 2009 Carlo has developed a specialty practice advising credit institutions on export finance and Export Credit Agency -backed transactions.

Camille Joanne Rosca Partner

New York

Camille has represented public companies and other large national and multinational enterprises in financial services-related litigation, including Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, and Nationstar Mortgage LLC d/b/a Mr. Cooper, in federal and state court proceedings across the country. She has extensive experience defending clients in litigation alleging fraud, breach of contract, tort claims, class action claims, and securities law violations, including:

• Defending sponsors and underwriters of residential mortgage-backed securities against breach of contract and securities fraud actions brought by institutional investors, securitization trustees, and regulators in federal and state courts across the United States.
• Defending one of the largest mortgage servicers in the country against complex breach of contract claims brought by an investment management firm.
• Defending and advising companies with class action lawsuits against consumer protection claims, including one of the world's largest investment management firms in connection with multiple consumer class action lawsuits across state and federal jurisdictions.
• Defending one of the largest private equity firms in the country against breach of contract and statutory claims.

Prior to joining Orrick, Camille served as a law clerk to Justice Anne M. Patterson of the New Jersey Supreme Court. With her New Jersey connections, Camille has remained active in the New Jersey bar, advising and acting as local counsel in a number of pending complex litigation matters in New Jersey state and federal courts.

Camille is active in pro bono matters, including representing veterans.  She has represented clients in partnership with the National Veterans Legal Services Program and Veterans Advocacy Project. 

Camille is also one of the co-chairs of the Financial Services Network for the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association and co-leads Orrick’s DiversAbility Network.