People

Anna Suh Partner

Sacramento

For years, Anna has worked with companies at all stages of their life cycles to find legal solutions that advance the goals of their business. With a particular passion for helping early to mid-stage technology and life sciences companies, Anna deeply knows the challenges these companies face and is able to provide practical solutions on a wide variety of day-to-day employment law issues, including leave and other accommodations, worker classifications, onboarding, performance management and terminations. Disruptors and innovators in the tech space face unique challenges and require advisors who are willing to jump in and immerse themselves in the company as a whole, and Anna happily works to understand her clients’ company culture and long-term goals while helping them effectively meet short-term legal challenges.

Anna also guides companies through the employment challenges that can accompany financings, mergers and acquisitions, and initial public offerings. Her litigation background, defending companies in employment litigation matters involving co-founder disputes, misappropriation of trade secrets and confidential information, employee mobility, discrimination/harassment, wage and hour, equity and token grants, and other compensation related issues, informs her approach to counseling and allows her to identify and address issues before a problem becomes contentious. In the event of threatened or actual litigation, Anna is prepared to aggressively litigate disputes to achieve the best outcomes for her clients.

Mark Thompson Senior Associate

New York

Orrick’s Employment Law and Litigation group was recently named Labor & Employment Department of the Year in California 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.

In addition to his litigation practice, Mark advises clients regarding a broad range of employment issues, including human resource policies and procedures, severance agreements and employee terminations.

Prior to joining Orrick, Mark was a judicial law clerk and gained experience litigating a wide range of civil and criminal cases.

Julie Totten Partner

Sacramento; San Francisco

In doing so, Julie closely collaborates with each client, gathering an in-depth understanding of their specific tensions, challenges and objectives. Legal 500 noted she “truly understands corporate politics and works with in-house counsel to understand the intersections of legal advice and business objectives.” Julie then draws upon nearly three decades of experience to guide clients towards the best possible resolution. Her client-focused approach is one of many reasons she was selected to lead Orrick’s global employment practice, which Chambers ranks as one of the country’s foremost practices and describes Julie as “a big thinker and a thought leader.”

Julie has experience defending both class actions and individual plaintiff cases. She has successfully defended clients in trial and arbitration and helps clients with all types of employment matters, including complex wage-and-hour class, collective and representative actions; pay equity and promotion cases; whistleblower retaliation actions, discrimination, harassment and retaliation litigation and trade secret and non-compete matters. She also guides clients through systemic government investigations and audits. Julie is proactive in helping clients avoid litigation by assisting them with the development of policies and practices designed to minimize exposure, including advice and counselling work in the areas of AI and DEI in selection and recruiting.

Julie is honored to be a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment and a member of the American Employment Law Council. She also served as a Council Member of the American Bar Association Labor and Employment Law Section.

Marianna Urban Senior Associate

Düsseldorf

She advises companies in all stages of growth, from pre-IPO start-ups to unicorns and investors to international corporations on a wide range of labor law matters. In addition to day-to-day employment law advice, this includes assisting companies with complex transactions, restructurings, and redundancies.

Her practice also focuses on employment law issues, such as employee leasing, service contracts for the management board or advice in the conclusion and negotiation of shop agreements.

Most recently, she has advised leading global technology companies such as Pinterest and Snap on various labor law issues and has been an important contact for many young technology companies since their foundation.

Marianna has been with Orrick since 2019.

Annie Prasad Vadillo Senior Associate

Silicon Valley

As a trial lawyer, trusted counselor, and advocate, Annie finds creative solutions - whether that means tackling challenging issues with current employees, resolving a matter pre-litigation, or winning decisively at trial.  Having amassed significant courtroom and trial experience, she knows how to deliver the best results for her client. She has won trials and arbitrations and defended several companies against high-profile, highly publicized claims.  Representative clients include Apple, Carta, Lyft, Williams-Sonoma, Inc., Unity Technologies, Instabase, TaskRabbit, and Next Insurance. 

Annie also has expertise in gig economy and independent contractor classification issues, workplace best practices and policies, defending companies in government audits including unemployment insurance audits, investigating internal employee complaints, and counseling on issues throughout the entire employee life cycle. 

When she is not in her office in Menlo Park, Annie chases after her two dogs Clifford and Jude and her toddler.  

Luciano Vella Senior Associate

Milano

Luciano Vella vanta una consolidata esperienza nell’assistenza, sia giudiziale che stragiudiziale, a clienti italiani e internazionali in materia di diritto del lavoro e relazioni industriali.

Supporta società appartenenti a diversi settori industriali nella gestione quotidiana dei rapporti di lavoro, fornendo consulenza strategica e operativa su tutte le tematiche connesse alla gestione del personale: dalla contrattualistica funzionale all’assunzione dei dipendenti, fino alla gestione della cessazione dei relativi rapporti, assistendo i clienti nella gestione dei procedimenti disciplinari, nell’implementazione di politiche retributive, gestione dei trasferimenti e distacchi e la definizione di accordi di più varia natura. 

Ha maturato una significativa esperienza nella gestione di processi di ristrutturazione del personale e in operazioni straordinarie, assistendo i clienti anche nella definizione e attuazione di piani di incentivazione, sia individuali che collettivi, nonché nella relativa fase contenziosa.

Luciano ha sviluppato una specifica expertise in materia di salute e sicurezza sul lavoro, sia sotto il profilo della compliance normativa, sia nella gestione del contenzioso e delle responsabilità datoriali, con particolare riferimento all’implementazione dell’organigramma della sicurezza, alla gestione delle deleghe di funzione e al loro allineamento con i processi previsti dai modelli organizzativi ex D.lgs. 231/2001, nonché nei rapporti con gli organi ispettivi.

È autore di numerosi articoli in materia di diritto del lavoro, pubblicati su riviste specialistiche e portali di settore, e partecipa regolarmente a convegni e webinar in qualità di relatore.

Si è laureato con pieni voti assoluti presso l’Università degli Studi di Pisa nel 2015 ed è iscritto all’Ordine degli Avvocati di Milano dal 2018.

Parla correntemente italiano e inglese.

L. Mark Weeks Senior Counsel

New York

He concentrates his practice on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, clean technology, life sciences, IT and telecommunications asset transfers, strategic investments, and general corporate representation for U.S., Japanese and other Asian companies.

Mark speaks, reads and writes fluent Japanese.

Nicola Whiteley Partner

Londra

Leading a “straightforward and solutions-focused” team in London who are “exceptionally good and very highly respected globally”, Nicola is listed and noted for her “business-oriented approach” in Lexology Index and recognised by Chambers and Partners as “an excellent lawyer” who is “extremely responsive, commercially astute and pragmatic” and “an absolute pleasure to work with”, with clients praising her “solution orientated” nature, “very good sense of customer service” and her ability to “get to the heart of a legal problem very quickly” and “simplify complex legal matters into understandable chunks”.

Nicola is also recognised as a Leading Partner by Legal 500 UK. Clients describe her as "responsive, quick, pragmatic, and a joy to work with," making in-house counsel's life "a lot easier." Her calm and sensible advice has been invaluable in stressful employment disputes, earning her the reputation of an "outstanding employment law practitioner." Nicola's strong technical expertise, deep understanding of her clients' businesses, and commercial pragmatism make her a "pleasure to work with."

Furthermore, Nicola is lauded as "superb – clever, technical, accessible, commercial, and a thoroughly decent lawyer and human being," with tremendous respect from peers and clients alike. Her broad range of experience and cost-effective solutions are highly valued, as is her ability to provide expert legal advice and counsel tailored to the practical needs of businesses. Nicola is also trusted for independent investigation work and legal ethics-related advice.

She is a member of the International Committee of the Employment Lawyer's Association.

Frank Nicholas Zalom Senior Associate

Sacramento

In doing so, Frank represents companies in all aspects of employment law including whistleblower, discrimination, harassment, disability, employee mobility, classification, and wage and hour issues. He provides aggressive, yet practical and client-focused advocacy, and brings to the table experience trying cases to verdict in state and federal court and litigating cases in AAA and JAMS arbitration. In addition to litigation, Frank collaborates with companies to review and revise their policies and procedures, and assists them in making management decisions. Frank’s clients range from household names to startups and span all industries, with an emphasis in technology, finance, and retail companies.

Prior to joining Orrick, Frank clerked for the Honorable Edward G. Smith in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

The teamwork and commitment which Frank applies to representing his clients he honed in the United States Navy. Prior to practicing law, he served as a surface warfare officer, where he led sailors on multiple overseas deployments and taught leadership at the United States Naval Academy. Frank continues to support the armed forces community as a member of the Congressional Service Academy Nominating Committee for California’s 7th District and by volunteering his time as a representative of the Naval Academy to mentor and interview high school students seeking an appointment to the Academy.

Emma Zarb Partner

Londra

Recommended by Legal 500 UK, Emma is described as having “masses of gravitas and great client skills.” Her dedication and hard work are consistently highlighted by clients and peers alike.

Emma has experience in drafting and negotiating employment contracts, consultancy agreements and settlement agreements, as well as staff handbooks and policies. She has extensive experiences in conducting and resolving employment litigation in both the Employment Tribunal, the Employment Appeal Tribunal and the High Court. In addition, she frequently advises a mix of high-growth startups and leading global corporations on high-value corporate transactions. She also advises on compliance issues such as the employment aspects of data protection matters and the drafting of Modern Slavery Act statements.

Emma is part of a “very responsive” team, who are “exceptionally good and very highly respected globally.”

Dr. André Zimmermann, LL.M. Partner

Düsseldorf; Monaco

André advises companies of all stages, pre-IPO startups, scaleups, unicorns and international corporations on a wide range of matters, having handled everything from day-to-day practical advice tailored to his clients’ needs, to complex multi-jurisdictional transactions from strategic planning through post-merger integration. Having long-standing experience in negotiating with works councils and unions in restructuring measures of all kind, a special focus of André's practice is on restructurings and headcount reductions.

He has advised on the employment law aspects in over 300 M&A transactions and financing rounds across various industries. Transactional advice includes employment law advice in complex, international technology transactions, M&A projects as well as private equity and venture capital investments, from due diligence to post-closing integration.

André has thorough knowledge of and a genuine passion for the tech industry. Over the last years, André has become the go-to-advisor of several Bay Area tech-companies, leaders in their market and high-growth tech companies. Most recently, he has advised leading global technology companies such as GoPro, Pinterest, GitHub, Nvidia, Sabre, Snap and Splunk on various employment matters.

André has received several awards for his work, inter alia:

• Germany's leading lawyer ranking JUVE recognizes André as "frequently recommended" employment law expert since 2017;
• Best Lawyers and Handelsblatt have listed André as one of Germany's best lawyers in employment law since 2020;
• Germany's leading business weekly WirtschaftsWoche ranked André as one of the top employment lawyers in Germany in 2019;
• IEL Elite, an in-house guide to the world’s leading employment and labour teams, recognized André as a "Key Lawyer" in 2022.

Clients recommend André to JUVE as “straight shooter" and "always refreshingly honest". Our clients praise his "creative and efficient style of working" and "a very practical and efficient style of providing advice", referring to him as "extremely responsive and always accessible" and as "an excellent advocate in court hearings". Clients appreciate André's "clear, sound and pragmatic real-world advice" and his "in-depth knowledge of the tech employment world".