Our Team

I enjoy being part of a team of people that empower the dreamers, the doers, and the bold, and the people that want to invest in those visionaries. I believe that corporate lawyers get to be at the triangle of change with one corner being brains, the other being money, and the other being the lawyers that can help scale and strategize and keep things moving.

Connections. Connections with people - both those moments where I get an opportunity to connect with someone (be it a friend, a client, a new person in the community), or those moments where you can help connect someone (including clients!) with another person who will be helpful to them. Connections within space (within a city, trail system, a new way to get from here to there). And connections of process – clients are always helping me better understand how one process can improve the other. Those “ah ha” moments.

I had the honor of exploring Egypt with Ann Kerr, Steve Kerr's mom (current coach of the Golden State Warriors) and widow to Malcolm H. Kerr, statesman. I received a scholarship in Professor Kerr's name and the experience in Egypt in high school was life changing. So many moments from the trip are vivid and etched in my brain, including Ann Kerr running us confidently jaywalking across busy intersections in Cairo, her heels sinking into the hot melting pavement, introducing us dignitaries across all party lines, and introducing us to villages of Nubians during a Nile boat ride.

The technology and ideas behind reusability, circularity, and what we can do with all the stuff we have created (and continue to create). Said another way, come talk to me about trash, recyclables and the things we throw away, and how we can do more with it for the world and its future. I'm also loving all the self-driving cars in San Francisco (though I personally also love to drive manual, classic cars).

My ideal weekend would be outside and in a bustling house with the doors wide-open. There would be some cooking, friends, kids playing, dog walking, and quiet sitting on a mountaintop.

Omnilingualism.

We over-index on confidence. Courage is the power to try things before you have the confidence.

Let's do this.

The eternal optimism that is the foundation of our clients' creative and strategic vision.

Collaboration. Few things inspire me more than good people working together to help others.

A shepherd.

I'm a fourth generation Silicon Valley resident.

Be nice.

The last partner I worked for before joining Orrick as a Senior Associate - he taught me to ask a few important questions to get my priorities in life right (kudos Axel, you are right: "the one thing you can't recycle is wasted time").

My kids, my wife and during very long hikes.

I hope I could put LEGO models together for a living.

"Range" from David Epstein, one of a handful of books I read twice.

As a kid, I preferred Batman, no superpowers, just an amazing array of tech gadgets.

Get your act together and propose to her.

This season I will not get emotional over my favourite football team (Hamburger Sport Verein) - I will never succeed.

I live vicariously through working with tech companies. I enjoy working with companies that "move fast and break things" because they keep us on our toes. There is never a dull day when working with tech companies.

I'm a reformed capital markets lawyer -- I used to take a lot of tech companies public during the dot com boom. I think that it is more interesting to act for the companies and investors at the earlier stages of the financing life cycle.

Each of my mentors were seasoned lawyers who had lived through prior life cycles of the technology ecosystem and were able to provide perspective on how transactions have evolved over the course of time.

Having a favorite client is like having a favorite child -- that is not possible! They are all favorites. Having a "least favorite client" is another story.

I'm often found "on the rail" at rock concerts.

I love working with tech and life sciences founders who are developing cutting-edge technologies and therapies that are changing the lives of millions of people, or in the case of pharmaceuticals, sometimes it's just a handful of people ... but those few patients have no other hope. The work that we do for these clients makes all of that possible.

I've been interested in technology since I got my first Atari 2600 video game system back in 1977! After a brief stint in investment banking, I pivoted and focused my attention on developing a set of skills that would allow me to work with entrepreneurs and venture capitalists to build innovative companies, products, and therapies.

I learned a lot from my father, who had a long and successful career as an investment banker and venture capitalist. He was one of the smartest people I have ever known and taught me an important lesson that has guided my life ever since ... if you're not doing something that makes the world a better place, then you're wasting what little time you have here.

I would be the oldest player-manager in Major League Baseball history. Given my advanced age and the loss of a step or two, I'd probably have to play first base ... for the Cubs, of course. If I weren't able to pull that off, I think I'd be a venture capitalist.

Our clients constantly challenge and surprise me. What was once a source of stress is now (mostly) an inspiration.

Based on the magnitude of the loans I took out for law school, probably a different kind of lawyer.

Depending on when you pinpoint the invention of the internet, either the NBA 3-point shot or the sequencing of the human genome.

To play guitar like Trey from Phish.

Don't go to grad school. My colleagues at my first post-collegiate job were refugees from academia, and when I told them I was planning to get an English Ph.D. they made it their mission to change my mind.