Regno Unito

Mergers, Acquisitions & Private Equity

Over the past 12 months, Orrick's London team has advised on more than 60 tech M&A deals valued at over $4.2 billion. Our top-ranked team is well-versed in coordinating complex cross-border transactions for buyers, sellers and funds in relation to share and asset leveraged buyouts, acquisitions and disposals, joint ventures, strategic alliances, licensing agreements, group reorganisations, private equity exits and portfolio company representations.

Cyber, Privacy & Data Innovation

One of the very few firms with a dedicated team of litigators in Europe focused exclusively on defending businesses and their executives against global privacy and cyber risk, we help companies manage their global compliance requirements, as well as their cyber and privacy incident response, litigation and regulatory enforcement exposure in the UK and EU. Collaborating with our premier US Chambers Band 1-ranked team which has pioneered this field for the past decade, we have experience handling high-profile regulatory investigations and disputes involving international regulators and agencies, including the UK FCA, SFO and ICO, and the U.S. DOJ, FBI, FTC and SEC. We act on behalf of number clients who are subject to ICO investigations including FTSE listed data insights companies, financial services institutions and technology companies on wide-ranging data protection issues.

Litigation, Disputes & International Arbitration

A truly international practice, long-recognised by the Global Arbitration Review as one of the top 30 firms in the world, our leading team protects the interests of businesses, high net worth individuals, multinationals and nation states.

We regularly handle large domestic disputes in the English Courts, in addition to high-value complex, multijurisdictional litigation, investment treaty and commercial arbitrations before all major arbitral institutions. We assist with internal investigations and advise on regulatory compliance, contractual and corporate partnership disputes, executive liability for corporate negligence and trademark infringements.

Capital Markets

Our team advises UK and global public and late stage private companies, entrepreneurs and underwriters on accessing international capital markets. Offering a combination of English and US law we guide our clients through debt and equity issues, including IPOs and secondary fundraisings on the Main Market and AIM, as well as private placements and domiciliation for the purposes of fundraising.

Antitrust and Competition

Our experienced team offers innovative solutions on complex, cross-border matters involving merger control and clearance aspects of transactions, private damages actions, behavioural cases and investigations. We are a leading authority on private damages actions and advised on the first private antitrust damages action to reach trial in the UK. In collaboration with our Brussels office, we regularly appear before the European Commission and the Competition and Markets Authority.

Business and Human Rights

In today’s interconnected world, a company’s approach to human rights can have a dramatic effect on its business activities. The rise of AI, big data, gig workers, facial recognition technology and 5G has given rise to a new set of human rights issues. Our team provides expert advice on the rapidly-expanding regulatory landscape and develops legal policy and business strategies to remedy human rights harms, and represent clients in litigation and arbitration relating to human rights issues.

Employment

Our team serves as strategic counsel to many of the world's most prestigious and innovative employers offering strategic and pragmatic solutions for contentious and transactional employment and human resource matters. Clients come to us as counsel of choice for sensitive, high-exposure matters, including redundancies, remuneration and equal pay decisions, employee misconduct, discrimination, harassment and whistleblowing.

Orrick Cares

London is a leading example of our firm-wide commitment to making a social impact. Our European pro bono and sustainability director is based in London and has helped 100% of our London team provide 5,350 hours in pro bono service in the past year.  Legal Week recognised Orrick as one of the top 5 pro bono firms in the UK in 2019 Over the last 18 months, our London office has launched several new pro bono partnerships and programmes. We collaborate with Mencap to advocate for individuals with learning disabilities and with LawWorks to support families with terminally ill children. We work with Bail for Immigration Detainees to offer support to individuals at risk of deportation. These initiatives received the Best New Pro Bono Activity Award and the Most Effective Pro Bono Partnership Award at the 2019 LawWorks Pro Bono Awards.

We are honoured to work with our peer firms and NGOs to strengthen the UK and European pro bono culture. A highlight is our involvement as a founding member of the Greece Collaborative project, focused on providing pro bono legal advice to refugees and asylum seekers on the Greek island of Lesbos. Teaming up with NGOs, other international law firms, Refugee Legal Support and European Lawyers on-the-ground, our pro bono volunteers use their legal skills to help protect human rights, support due process, and uphold the rule of law. Orrick has committed £15,000 in funding and to sending volunteer lawyers for a minimum of two weeks over the course of the year to provide pro bono assistance, particularly with first instance interviews and family reunification.

Our London office runs an annual social mobility program, funded through Orrick Cares. This program, in collaboration with the Spear Programme at Resurgo, aims to assist some of the most disadvantaged and marginalised young adults in London in overcoming barriers, finding meaningful work and building a career. We host motivated and determined young adults who are keen to learn, network and improve their skills. Over a third of the office is involved in delivering sessions that include legal rights awareness, soft skills workshops, mentoring sessions and work shadowing placements.

Diversity, Inclusion & Wellness

Inclusiveness is a core value that shapes the way we run our firm. It’s part of our daily conversation about investing in talent, staffing our teams and measuring our success. We are a founding member of the Reignite Academy, which provides opportunities for women returning to the profession after a career break to raise their families. This investment in women's leadership led to the firm receiving the Diversity and Inclusion Award at the 2019 Financial Times European Innovation Awards.

As our firm works to remove the stigma around talking about mental health, we are leading The Conversation in London which includes a 12-month programme involving psychologist-led educational seminars, team discussions and monthly support groups for our team members.

Innovation

As one of the world’s most innovative and forward-thinking law firms, Orrick in London is constantly looking at ways to improve the delivery of legal services and deliver greater value to clients. For the fourth year in a row, Orrick has been recognised by the Financial Times in its annual Innovative Lawyers Report Europe for various projects focused on delivering these innovative solutions. Overall, the Report ranks Orrick among the top five US-origin law firms in Europe.

Highlights include the development of the firm's GDPR Readiness Assessment Tool, led by our London Cyber, Privacy & Data Innovation practice and our Series A Tool, developed by our London TCG practice. Our TCG practice also helped to build and utilises Joinder, a next generation cloud-based document management system allowing founders and investors to access relevant company documentation – anywhere and at any time. They also introduced electronic signatures and AI into their workflow to help speed up transactions and deliver greater value to clients. These resources were developed through Orrick Labs, our in-house team of technologists dedicated to accelerating the development of leading-edge and innovative legal service solutions.

We partner with like-minded organisations that promote innovation within our core sectors. We host regular initiatives with London Enterprise Tech which fosters innovation in the London enterprise technology ecosystem through championing early stage technology companies, supporting entrepreneurs, educating companies on how to work with enterprises, and creating an environment where entrepreneurs, investors and businesses can work together.