People

Alexandra Stathopoulos Partner

San Francisco; Los Angeles

Alex is based out of Orrick's San Francisco and Los Angeles offices and represents clients across California in their most critical employment law disputes. Legal 500 has recognized Alex as a "stand-out" attorney "who communicates quickly, confidently, and efficiently" and noted that she is "prepared, firm, and patient in depositions, with opposing counsel and with witnesses, and thinks very well on her feet." A thought leader in the employment law space, Alex is active on the Executive Committee for the California Lawyers Association (CLA) Labor and Employment Section and is an Editor-in-Chief of the CLA Labor & Employment Law Review. Alex also serves on the Executive Committee for the Bar Association of San Francisco (BASF) Labor and Employment Law Section.

Alex's north star is understanding a client's business objectives first, whether in litigation or counseling matters. Alex defends employers in class, collective, and representative actions alleging wage and hour violations, discrimination, and other claims under federal and state laws, including Private Attorney General Act (PAGA) claims. She also routinely defends employers in high-stakes single plaintiff cases involving contract disputes, leaves and accommodations, and allegations of discrimination, harassment, retaliation, whistleblowing, wrongful termination, and trade secrets misappropriation. In her counseling practice, Alex provides bespoke counseling advice to management, designs workplace policies and procedures, and offers creative and practical solutions to address a wide range of employment issues including new and developing areas of the law.

Orrick’s Employment Law and Litigation group was recently named Labor & Employment Department of the Year in California for the fourth consecutive year by The Recorder, the premier source for legal news, in recognition of their significant wins on behalf of leading multinational companies on today’s most complex and challenging employment law matters.

Winnie Tsien Of Counsel

Los Angeles

Winnie has addressed the Bond Attorneys' Workshop for the National Association of Bond Lawyers relating to various topics, including arbitrage and rebate, refundings, working capital financings, and 501c3 financings. Winnie earned a J.D. in 1994 from the University of California, Davis School of the Law, where she was elected to the Order of the Coif and was a member of Law Review. She received her B.A. from Pitzer College.

Robert L. Uriarte Partner

Silicon Valley; Los Angeles

Robert is a technology litigator and trial lawyer focused on software, security technology, and emerging internet law and digital crimes issues.   Robert has helped establish landmark precedent under the Copyright Act, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act,  California Penal Code 502, and Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and he has successfully tried multiple cases to verdict, including under the Patent Act.  In addition to litigation work, Robert also counsels companies ranging from market leaders to start-ups on issues related to intellectual property, security, and incident response.  Robert brings a creative, business-oriented approach to helping clients develop, acquire, and protect their most important assets. 

Robert is committed to improving diversity in the legal profession. He co-chaired Orrick's Silicon Valley Diversity Committee for many years and is one of the firm-wide facilitators for Orrick’s Latinx Inclusion Network.  Robert is also committed to pro bono work.  He received Orrick's Pro Bono Award in 2019 and the Legal Aid Association of California's 2015 Family Law Pro Bono Award.  Robert currently serves as a member the board of directors for the San Mateo County Legal Aid Society. 

Robert served as a law clerk to U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger in the Eastern District of California prior to commencing private practice.

Skanthan Vivekananda Partner

Los Angeles

A significant portion of Skanthan’s structured finance practice involves the representation of banks and asset managers in connection with the formation and structuring of cash and synthetic CLOs and other securitization vehicles as well as other types of credit-focused investment funds.

Skanthan is also an authority on derivatives with experience advising clients with respect to a wide variety of over-the-counter and centrally cleared derivatives and structured products. His practice focuses on a wide range of issues relating to derivatives, including transaction structuring, bankruptcy close-out analysis and regulatory and compliance obligations arising under the U.S. securities laws, the Commodity Exchange Act and the Dodd-Frank Act. Skanthan also advises registered and private investment funds with respect to margin lending facilities, prime brokerage facilities and related regulatory issues.

Skanthan served as a reservist in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1998-2002.

Nicole Walsh Partner

Los Angeles

Nicole guides real estate investment funds, banks, developers and corporate clients through their most intricate real estate deals. With a strong background in corporate finance, she can bridge relevant viewpoints and offer distinct context across a wide range of real estate transactions, such as restructurings, workouts, foreclosures, mortgage and mezzanine financings, construction contracts, joint ventures, acquisitions and dispositions.

She serves as the relationship co-lead for one of our largest real estate clients, Hackman Capital Partners. Nicole also works closely with Sagehall Partners, Westbrook Partners, Local Bounti and Walton Street Capital, and has deep relationships with CoreVest.

Gerard Walsh Partner

Los Angeles

Jerry is particularly recognized for his work in connection with the acquisition, restructuring and realization of distressed debt in the real estate and hospitality markets. Clients seek him out for the most complex distressed debt transactions, including securitized and mezzanine debt intercreditor workouts and the establishment of mezzanine debt lending platforms. Jerry led a multidisciplinary Orrick team in one of the most sophisticated real estate debt transactions that was restructured in 2013, involving a series of complex transactions and multi-state litigation. Recognized as a key lawyer in the 2022 Real Estate category, a client told The Legal 500 US that Jerry is “smart, responsive and extraordinarily helpful and collaborative.”

In addition, Jerry leads Orrick’s hospitality practice and advises global opportunity, hotel and pension funds and advisors in connection with the acquisition, repositioning and disposing of hotel portfolios throughout the United States. He advises on acquisitions, joint ventures, financing, rebranding, disposition and negotiation of hotel management agreements, shared services and amenities agreements, and franchise agreements, including termination of hotel management and franchise agreements involving brands such as Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton, Marriott, St. Regis, Renaissance, Luxury Collection, Westin, Kimpton and other Sheraton/Starwood brands.

Jerry's representative clients include Cisco Systems, Inc., Cornerstone Advisers LLC, JMA Ventures, LACERA, The Newhall Land and Farming Company, Walton Street Capital, and Westbrook Partners.

Before joining Orrick, Jerry was a partner with a magic circle firm and chairman of the real estate group of a prominent national law firm.

Laura A. Wytsma Partner

Los Angeles

Laura has significant trial experience as lead counsel and excels in presenting complex technology to judges and juries. In addition to her trial skills, she is well respected for her talents at the appellate level. Laura has principally authored dozens of appeal briefs in federal and state courts and argued nine appeals in the Ninth and Federal Circuits and the California Court of Appeal.

Laura began her career in the U.S. Justice Department's (DOJ) Honor Program, where she represented the government in criminal and civil deportation proceedings, advised the U.S. Attorney's Office on immigration issues, and ultimately provided legal guidance to field offices at Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) headquarters.

After leaving the DOJ's Honors Program for civil practice, Laura began working on her first patent case in 1999. The matter, which lasted almost a decade and ultimately reached the U.S. Supreme Court, greatly influenced her decision to become a patent litigator at a time when few non-technical lawyers and women practiced in the field. Since her initial patent case, Laura has represented clients from around the world in over 50 patent cases in California, DC, Delaware, Illinois, New York, and Texas. One of her prized possessions is the “trial victory bat” Louisville Slugger custom made for Laura after she secured a finding of non-infringement and defended the victory in the Federal Circuit.

Deeply committed to pro bono work, Laura has represented dozens of asylum seekers from around the world. And as an active participant in organizations supporting this work, she has been a recipient of pro bono and community service awards throughout her career.

Weixin Yang Managing Associate

Los Angeles

Weixin represents a variety of market participants, including sponsors, issuers and underwriters, in public and private offerings of commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS).

SueAnn Yue Partner

Los Angeles

SueAnn represents issuers, sponsors, placement agents, servicers, underwriters, and other market participants in connection with both public offerings and private placements, asset acquisitions and sales and the negotiation of lending facilities.

Her practice encompasses a variety of asset-backed securities, including credit and charge card receivables, residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS), agency and government sponsored mortgage loans, and tax lien-backed securities.

SueAnn advises clients on the implications of financial markets regulation, including the implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act. SueAnn is also an editor of Orrick's Financial Industry Week in Review.