People

Meredith Dawson Partner

New York

Meredith joined the firm as a summer associate in the New York office in 2016. Through years of hands-on experience and collaborative client relationships, she has developed a multifaceted understanding of financing structures in credit and lending. Meredith’s transactional experience includes acquisition and leveraged finance facilities; direct lending transactions; first lien, second lien and first-out/last-out unitranche facilities; recurring revenue loans; and asset-based and other specialty financings across a variety of industries.

Behnam Dayanim Partner

Washington, D.C.

Behn advises gaming and gambling providers, large media companies, Fintech, blockchain and more traditional financial services participants, and other technology and consumer-focused companies on issues at the intersection of gaming, financial services, data privacy and governance and related regulatory areas. Clients turn to him for his ability to advise on the whole frame of issues they may encounter, and he is equally comfortable guiding emerging companies in the early stages of their lifecycles and mature, multinational public companies. Behn is at home in the courtroom – representing clients in cutting-edge gaming litigations, before regulatory bodies – helping the crypto industry address growing sanctions and other financial services obligations, and in the boardroom – assisting in the formation of significant commercial partnerships, brand licenses, acquisitions and other combinations.

Bas de Blank Partner

Silicon Valley

In addition to his ITC practice, Bas also heads Orrick’s contentious prosecution practice. He has led more than 30 IPRs and first-chaired more than a dozen trials before the United States Patent Office, as well as represented clients in dozens of trials in district courts, and before PTAB.

As someone with degrees in both engineering and English literature, Bas is uniquely suited to present complicated topics to non-technical audiences. He has represented clients in fields as diverse as semiconductor processing and structure, GPS and geosynchronous satellites, image texture and graphics processing, Internet switches and communications, and various consumer products.

Christopher De Los Reyes Senior Associate

New York

Chris focuses in a variety of cross-border employment matters, including corporate immigration and workforce mobility strategies for multinational organizations. From startup ventures to large Fortune 500 companies and international conglomerates, he has represented clients across a diverse range of industries, including technology, banking and financial services, energy, manufacturing, retail and e-commerce, insurance, logistics and transportation, and academic institutions, among others. 

As a member of Orrick's Global Employment Team, Chris focuses on international comparative employment law and assists clients on matters such as compliance, HR policies, global offer letters/employment contracts, separation agreements, etc. 

Having practiced U.S. immigration and nationality law for many years prior to joining the Firm, Chris bolsters Orrick's capabilities and subject matter experience in the ever-changing corporate immigration space. To this end, he routinely advises HR and management teams on I-9 compliance, procurement of work authorization for foreign national talent, and the immigration-related impact of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and other types of corporate restructuring. Chris has successfully assisted companies with obtaining nonimmigrant visas for H-1B Specialty Occupation Professionals, L-1 Intracompany Transferees, E-1/E-2 Treaty Traders and Investors, TN NAFTA professionals, F-1 Students, J-1 Exchange Visitors, B-1/B-2 Temporary Visitors, and O-1 Extraordinary Ability Individuals. He also has extensive experience with the PERM labor certification process, immigrant visas, legal permanent residency (green card) applications, and naturalization/citizenship applications. 

Kathryn "Katy" de Visscher Managing Associate

Boston

Katy assists clients in their data breach investigations and cybersecurity incident response, including advising clients on data breach notification responsibilities and providing strategic advice on how to manage cybersecurity risks. She advises on enhancing existing privacy and information security policies and procedures, such as online privacy notices.

Her work includes counseling on compliance with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for day-to-day business operations and the development of new products.

Katy graduated from Boston College Law School. During that time, she externed in the Data Privacy & Security Unit at the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office where she supported consumer protection enforcement actions. She also interned with The Future of Privacy Forum and in-house with a leading cloud-based software company.

Tamir Jonathan Debbi Senior Associate

New York

Tamir’s practice focuses on a range of transactional matters involving intellectual property and innovative technologies, with an emphasis on advanced software applications as well as life sciences. Tamir has significant experience and counsels clients on structuring and negotiating complex technology commercialization agreements, such as SaaS and other software agreements, medical device and pharmaceutical royalty arrangements, and other general corporate and technology dealings.

Prior to joining Orrick, Tamir was an associate in the Technology Transactions Group at Morrison & Foerster in Silicon Valley, where he maintained a technology practice focused on cross-border transactions involving emerging-growth companies and venture capital, and advising startups on their operations, acquisition and exit strategies.

Marcus Deitz Partner

Houston

Marcus’ experience includes the representation of school districts, municipalities, counties, junior colleges, universities, special authorities and other political subdivisions in a variety of roles, including bond counsel, disclosure counsel and issuer’s counsel. In addition, he regularly represents underwriters and purchasers of both public and privately placed debt, regularly serving as underwriters’ counsel and bank counsel.

Complementary to his core practice, Marcus is also able to provide his clients guidance on derivative transactions and liquidity facilities, election law matters, and municipal and school law issues.

Before joining Orrick, Marcus clerked for the Colorado Court of Appeals and subsequently practiced as an associate and then a partner with several international law firms.

Jose DeJesus Analyst

New York

Jose DeJesus is a paralegal in the Finance Business Unit and the Public Finance practice group. He has participated in financings in which the firm has served as bond counsel, underwriter’s counsel and borrower counsel for various tax-exempt and taxable municipal and project financings.  He works mainly for the Energy and Infrastructure Group.  His duties include preliminary drafting of documents and UCC financing statements, preparation for and assisting with closings as well as post-closing matters.  He has been with the firm since 1995 and has been working as a paralegal since 1984.

Mike Delikat Partner

New York

He is also the founder of the firm’s Whistleblower Task Force. He previously served as the Managing Director of Orrick’s Litigation Division. The practice group under Mike’s leadership was chosen as one of the top national employment law practices by Law 360.

Chambers USA and Chambers Global has ranked him in Band 1 since it began publishing its rankings, noting he is "a giant of the employment bar, widely regarded as an expert in whistleblowing matters and sex harassment claims,” “sought out by premier clients to handle high-stakes employment litigation and investigations,” and "one of the best lawyers on the East Coast for financial institutions."

Mike has an active trial, arbitration, and appellate practice and handles a number of high-visibility class action and impact cases. He is regularly retained by boards of directors and audit committees to conduct high exposure internal investigations of corporate wrongdoing.

Frederic Demeulenaere Partner

Milano

Assiste regolarmente società nazionali e internazionali, investitori e altri stakeholder – inclusi lenders e sponsor - in un’ampia gamma di operazioni finanziarie. La sua attività si concentra in particolare nel project finance, con focus su infrastrutture ed energia, nel leveraged e acquisition finance (inclusi i finanziamenti a supporto di offerte pubbliche e private per target sia italiani sia esteri), nel private debt, nel real estate finance, nei finanziamenti garantiti da agenzie di credito all’esportazione (ECA-backed financings), in operazioni di ristrutturazione e investment-grade loans.

Gran parte dei mandati seguiti da Frédéric hanno una dimensione cross-border, e prevedono assistenza legale coordinata attraverso diverse giurisdizioni. Vanta una solida esperienza nella consulenza su operazioni che coinvolgono mercati emergenti.

Karen Dempsey Senior Advisor

San Francisco

Karen is involved in a full range of corporate legal projects for high growth technology companies including venture financings, public offerings, public company securities law compliance matters and mergers and acquisitions. She also regularly advises public companies and board of directors on corporate governance issues. Karen's clients include private and public companies in the biotechnology, real estate, finance and Internet related industries. She also represents underwriters in initial public offerings and follow-on offerings and venture capital firms in investment transactions.

Karen is a frequent speaker on corporate and securities law topics including Initial Public Offerings, Corporate Governance and Sarbanes-Oxley matters. She is also Co-Editor of Part III of Venture Capital & Public Offering Negotiation, published by Aspen Law & Business.

Before joining Orrick, Karen was a shareholder at Heller Ehrman LLP and was chair of their firmwide corporate governance practice group.

Adrian Dengler Counsel

Monaco

Adrian represents clients in domestic and cross-border transactions, in particular local and international companies, private equity/venture funds and growth companies.

In addition Adrian acts as a business angel for several venture capital start-up companies.