People

Calvin Vaughan Associate

Washington, D.C.

His practice focuses on transactions in the energy and infrastructure sectors.

Andres Vega Managing Associate

Washington, D.C.

He regularly represents project developers and investors in energy project finance transactions, including tax equity and debt financing, M&A, joint ventures, project development and a broad range of corporate matters. His prior experience includes international and multijurisdictional financing and development of energy projects in Mexico and across Africa, including Equatorial Guinea, South Africa, Nigeria, and Egypt.

Christopher Vejnoska Senior Counsel to the Office of General Counsel

San Francisco

In his practice, Chris has been a first chair trial lawyer with more than 30 years of experience handling high stakes, precedent-setting cases, particularly in the products liability arena. His most recent products liability engagements included serving as trial counsel for a large talc company, including trying to conclusion one of the very first mesothelioma cases against it, and leading a cross-office international and national team defending multiple Chinese companies in a historic MDL. At times, a client asked Chris to lead five or more trial teams in products cases in a single year.

Chris also has acted as national counsel for companies facing thousands of mass tort product liability claims and complex, multiparty class action litigation, and has counseled multinational companies entangled in lengthy, enterprise-threatening litigation and negotiated legal and business solutions involving billions of dollars. He has extensive experience in complex and commercial litigation, ranging from insurance recovery disputes to trade secrets issues, and has significant experience in assisting foreign aerospace companies with international arbitration disputes with first-tier aircraft manufacturers.

Earlier in his career, Chris represented large public companies in mergers, acquisitions, strategic investments and private financings; private companies in initial public offerings; and emerging growth companies in general corporate matters. Chris' transactional experience also offers clients a unique perspective on risk mitigation strategies to avoid costly litigation in the future.

Chris also chaired Orrick’s Risk Management Committee and served on its Operations Team.  Prior to joining the firm, Chris was a partner at Clifford Chance and a partner at Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, where he was a member of the Policy Committee, a member of the Executive Committee, Chair of the Risk Management Committee and Chair of the Hiring Committee.

Deepa Vekaria Associate

Londra

Her experience includes advising arrangers, investment managers, issuers, lenders and originators on a range of capital market transactions, including warehouse arrangements, issuances and retention financings. Deepa has recently advised clients such as Barclays, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Och-Ziff and PGIM.

Prior to joining Orrick, Deepa worked in the capital markets practice of a leading international law firm in London.

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.

Stephen Venuto Partner

Silicon Valley; San Francisco

The Daily Journal has named Stephen one of the Top 100 Lawyers in California (chosen regardless of specialty). Stephen was Facebook’s first lawyer and has advised many other leading companies at critical stages of their lifecycles including Anthropic AI, Asana, Instagram, Pinterest, Warby Parker and WETA Digital.

Stephen cares about the teams he counsels and thrives on providing practical business advice. When The American Lawyer named Stephen “Dealmaker of the Year”, it recognized his corporate work and representation of Instagram in its sale to Facebook and quoted a prominent Instagram board member as saying that he “is an outstanding lawyer, but he’s also an outstanding business partner . . . someone who cares about everybody [who's] involved in a company.” In addition to naming Stephen to its list of Top 100 Lawyers in California, The Daily Journal has named him to its Top Emerging Companies Lawyers list, and Chambers and Partners has recognized and ranked Stephen in two separate categories for several consecutive years.

Numerous standout technology companies and their founders have turned to Stephen for corporate representation at all stages of their life-cycles. Most of his counseling is with technology disruptive clients in fast-growth fields such as artificial intelligence, information technology, metaverse, fin-tech, SaaS, gaming, media and entertainment. His recent prominent counseling includes companies in the artificial intelligence,  metaverse and gaming spaces. For example he recently advised WETA Digital in its metaverse and gaming related asset sale to Unity Software (for $1.6 billion)  and has advised Anthropic AI from formation through each of its financings.

Martha Verhaelen Career Associate

Düsseldorf

She advises start-ups from their incorporation through their first financing rounds into the growth phase, as well as on internationalization projects. Martha works with venture capital, as well as corporate venture capital investors on start-up financing projects.

Prior to joining Orrick, Martha worked as a trainee lawyer for another international law firm and United Nations Women in Bonn.

Bryan Victor Partner

Sacramento

Bryan has experience with many structures used in public finance, including master trust indentures, fixed and variable rate bonds, direct purchases, delayed delivery bonds, insurance, letters of credit and other credit or liquidity agreements; commercial paper programs; conversions and reofferings. Bryan has extensive experience working with stand alone hospitals, health care clinics and large health systems. He provides annual and bi-annual federal securities law training for staff of the State of California Treasurer's Office, the State of California Department of Finance, the State Controller's Office, CalPERs and other state agencies and applies that securities law knowledge on health care transactions. Bryan is the lead partner for general public finance matters for the State of California as bond and disclosure counsel, including the issuance of general obligation commercial paper notes, general obligation bonds and revenue anticipation notes, negotiation and review of credit and liquidity agreements related to such obligations and disclosure related to same.

Michelle Visser Partner

San Francisco

Michelle’s dedication to these cutting-edge areas of the law and technology over the past 20 years has earned her recognition from Chambers for Privacy & Data Security Litigation and as an up-and-coming lawyer in Privacy & Data generally – where she is described as “equally capable in both compliance and enforcement elements of privacy regulation.”

As a litigator, Michelle is adept at developing novel legal arguments to protect clients in a world where innovation is outpacing regulation. She brings deep experience representing companies in regulatory investigations, data breach and privacy litigation involving the increasing web of statutes that pose statutory damages exposure to companies, such as the Illinois Biometric Privacy Act (BIPA), the California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA), and the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA), and other complex commercial claims. As a crisis manager, she also represents companies in incident response and enjoys working with diverse groups of stakeholders to mitigate business and reputational risks and achieve positive outcomes.

Michelle resides in California with her three children.

Andrew Vogeler Managing Associate

Wheeling, W.V. (GOIC)

Andrew concentrates his practice on matters pertaining to private equity and alternative investment funds, representing both investors and fund sponsors.

On the investor side, he primarily represents institutional investors, advising their participation in funds with a variety of focuses including venture capital, buy-out, real estate, and mezzanine opportunities. He works to ensure fund arrangements not only advance clients' economic objectives, but are responsive to the complex fiduciary and regulatory issues institutional investors must manage on behalf of their stakeholders.

On the sponsor side, Andrew handles various aspects of fund formation relating to the internal structuring of sponsor and management entities, drafting of fund documents, and negotiations with investors.

In addition, Andrew has experience handling a range of issues in M&A, real estate, oil & gas, and pipeline infrastructure transactions.

Tobias von Gostomski Counsel

Monaco

From bilateral loans up to complex, multi-jurisdictional financing transactions, Tobias provides his clients with innovative advice tailored to their most sophisticated needs, including those clients who have little or no experience in financing deals.

His clients include banks, sponsors, investment funds and corporates looking for fast, reliable and high-quality advice. 

Tobias also advises his clients on regulatory law, capital markets and money laundering issues.

He has over 20 years of experience and worked for various big law firms as well as for Commerzbank before joining Orrick.

Steven vonBerg Counsel

Washington, D.C.

Steve’s practice is focused on the full spectrum of federal mortgage lending laws, particularly those that have come out of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), including the Ability-to-Repay and Qualified Mortgage (ATR/QM) rule, the Loan Originator Compensation rule, the Truth in Lending Act-Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (TILA-RESPA) Integrated Disclosure rule (TRID), RESPA Section 8, the 2013 Mortgage Servicing Rules and the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) amendments.

Steve is active in the mortgage industry, writing articles and is a regular speaker at mortgage industry conferences. He was a contributing author to the CFPB Mortgage Origination Handbook (2nd Edition).  Steve also holds a Certified Mortgage Banker designation from the Mortgage Bankers Association and also completed the MBA's Future Leaders Program in 2018.

Prior to joining Orrick, Steve was Counsel at Buckley LLP.