People

Michael Ruiz Partner

Silicon Valley; Seattle

Michael advises his clients on a broad range of legal needs, including corporate formation and structure, venture capital financings, board and stockholder relationships and exit transactions. His current and former clients are concentrated in interactive media industries including game development, Esports, AR/VR tech, 3D animation, and artificial intelligence. Michael also advises companies in the cleantech and life sciences sectors.

His favorite video game is Final Fantasy (VII), favorite board game is Twilight Imperium (IV) and favorite science fiction book is Ender’s Game.

Zoe Russell Managing Associate

Los Angeles

Zoe works on diverse employment litigation matters. She is also active in pro bono matters.

Zoe received her J.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, where she simultaneously earned her M.A. in African American Studies. While in law school, she served as the Co-Chair for the Black Law Students Association and the Director of Affordable Housing for the UCLA Graduate Students Association.

Diana M. Rutowski Partner

Silicon Valley

As a seasoned IP litigator and counselor, Diana’s practice has run the gamut from high stakes trials, to take-down and anti-counterfeiting campaigns, to employee departure and trade secret investigations. She represents clients in District and state courts and before administrative bodies including the ITC and the USPTO. For example, Diana tried and won a complex case in which the other side sought to extend the monopoly of an expired utility patent by claiming trade dress rights in a technical product feature. Drawing upon experience handling both complex patent and trademark matters, her team successfully argued that the intersection of patent and trademark policy prevented the other side from continuing its monopoly, clearing the way for her client to enter the market. With Diana at their side, companies can rest assured that their essential assets are protected, from their core technologies, to assets including their company name, logo, and website.

While at Orrick, Diana was seconded to the City and County of San Francisco, where she had the privilege to serve as an Assistant District Attorney, and first-chair several trials. She was also seconded to Salesforce, where she learned first-hand that the law comprises just one component of a company’s overall business strategy.

Diana is also passionate about her pro bono work. For example, she represented two detainees in Guantanamo in connection with their petitions for a writ of habeas corpus, and she is currently working with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area. Before joining the firm, Diana worked for the Legal Aid of Cambodia where she assisted with the prosecution of former Khmer Rouge officials and represented individuals who sought to reclaim land rights.

Diana is a member of the International Trademark Association, of ChIPs: Advancing Women in IP and of the Harvard Club of San Francisco.

Kathryn Ryan Partner

Washington, D.C.

She represents banks, first and second mortgage originators and servicers, reverse mortgage originators and servicers, fulfillment service providers, commercial lenders and servicers, bank holding companies, private equity firms, finance companies, debt collection companies, financial institutions and technology companies, payment processors, money transmitters and various related service providers.

Katy assists clients with matters before state regulatory agencies, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), federal banking agencies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. She also provides strategic and tactical advice to help clients identify and secure the nationwide federal and state approvals necessary to achieve operational goals.

Prior to joining Orrick, Katy was a partner at Buckley LLP, where she was a member of the firm’s partner board.

Ramon J. Ryan Managing Associate

Washington, D.C.

Before joining Orrick, Ramon was a law clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and a litigation associate at Williams & Connolly LLP, where he focused on patent litigation and government investigations.

Ramon is a graduate of Vanderbilt Law School, where he served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law. During law school, Ramon won the ABA Infrastructure and Regulated Industries Section 2020 K. William Kolbe Law Student Writing Competition for his published article, The Fault in Our Stars: Challenging the FCC’s Treatment of Commercial Satellites as Categorically Excluded from Review Under the National Environmental Policy Act. He also received the Lightfoot Franklin & White Best Oralist Award for his oral argument in the 1L Moot Court Competition.

Nick Sabatino Senior Associate

Sacramento

Nick represents a diverse range of stakeholders throughout the capital structure in complex restructuring scenarios. His practice encompasses representing institutional creditors, financial institutions, funds, direct lenders, and strategic investors in bankruptcy proceedings, out-of-court workouts, and distressed asset acquisitions.  He has significant experience with debtor-in-possession financing, pre-packaged Chapter 11 proceedings, Section 363 sales, and contested bankruptcy litigation matters.

Nick has developed particular expertise in distressed M&A transactions across multiple industries, including energy and infrastructure, life sciences, cryptocurrency, and retail sectors. He regularly works with clients to structure and execute credit-bid acquisitions, private sales, and strategic investments in distressed companies. His cross-practice approach allows him to collaborate effectively with Orrick’s M&A, Banking & Finance, and Energy & Infrastructure teams to deliver comprehensive solutions to complex distressed situations.

Beyond traditional restructuring work, Nick’s experience extends to non-distressed transactions, including real estate purchases and syndicated loan refinancing. He brings a strategic and detail-oriented approach to each matter, working collaboratively with clients to navigate challenging financial circumstances and achieve business objectives.

Emily Sabo Senior Associate

New York

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

Formerly, an associate at Thacher Proffitt and Wood, LLP in New York City (also in the Structured Finance group), Emily left Manhattan in 2008 and founded and operated her law firm in the U.S. Virgin Islands, providing a wide variety of legal services, spanning from general civil litigation and bankruptcy litigation, to estate planning, probate, commercial contracts, and general business and transactional law. She also acted as a legislative consultant to a USVI Senator working to craft legislation in various fields, including without limitation, renewable energy law. As part of her diverse practice, and before she engaged in consulting work for the Senator, Emily gained invaluable experience in the field of renewable energy (including related policies and legislation) when she was hired by an off-island private power company to act as legal counsel for all transactional, regulatory and litigation work necessary to complete a ground breaking renewable energy project on the island of St. Thomas.

At Thacher Proffitt & Wood, LLP, Emily represented issuers, underwriters, sellers and servicers in mortgage-backed securities transactions (including public and private offerings of residential and commercial mortgage-backed securities); she also represented banks and other financial institutions in their capacities as lenders, borrowers, issuers and purchasers in structured finance transactions and in connection with asset-based and other secured lending transactions and warehouse facilities with collateral spanning various asset classes.   Prior to her structured finance experience, Emily worked in Merrill Lynch’s State Regulation, Legislation and Government Affairs Department researching, state securities laws, drafting responses for securities litigation and compliance matters and participating in industry committee conferences regarding pending state legislation of industry-wide concern.

Rohit Sachdev Partner

San Francisco

Rohit has extensive experience in the solar, wind, energy storage, and biofuel sectors, and has advised on numerous award-winning transactions. He is recognized by Chambers USA and Chambers Global in the Projects: Renewables & Alternative Energy category. Rohit’s clients describe him as “excellent,” “knowledgeable,” “timely in his work,” “commercially-oriented,” “very plugged into the market” with a “great demeanor."

In recent years, Rohit's practice has focused particularly on project development and project M&A transactions. He has successfully negotiated many GWs of "physical" and "virtual" PPAs and tolling agreements, as well as a variety of construction, supply and other development arrangements. Rohit has also represented clients on the purchase and sale of renewables projects in various U.S. jurisdictions, as well as joint venture and other project asset arrangements. He has particularly focused on the development, financing and sale of domestic and international energy storage projects, including stand-alone, hybrid, front-of-meter and behind-the-meter projects.

Rohit co-leads Orrick’s South Asian Inclusion Network and served as a Fellow for the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity.

He started his legal career at an international law firm in New York, where he focused on project development and project finance transactions across the globe. Prior to law and business schools, Rohit was an investment banking analyst at Credit Suisse in San Francisco where he provided M&A and financial advisory services to technology companies in Silicon Valley.

Sherry-Maria Safchuk Partner

Santa Monica

Sherry’s clients include banks, mortgage originators and servicers, mortgage brokers, commercial lenders, bank holding companies, private equity firms, investment advisors, investment managers, finance companies, fintechs, consumer reporting agencies, data brokers, debt collection companies and related service providers.

She is a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/US), and was a member of the Mortgage Bankers Association’s 2016 class of Future Leaders and the California Mortgage Bankers Association’s 2014 class of Future Leaders.

Prior to joining Orrick, Sherry was a partner at Buckley LLP. She has been an associate in private practice. She also clerked for the Honorable Jeanette J. Clark in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.

Parth Sagdeo Senior Associate

Silicon Valley

Parth’s practice combines his deep technical knowledge and his passion for zealous oral and written advocacy. With the benefit of his Master’s degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering, and engineering experience at leading software companies including Microsoft and Synopsys, Parth dives into the technical weeds and distills the issues on which a case will turn. Informed by his experiences clerking at the District of Delaware and the Federal Circuit, he understands how to convey complex technical and legal concepts in a way that persuades juries and judges.

Parth has experience at all stages of trial and appellate practice. His recent achievements include invalidating a patent claim for indefiniteness, obtaining dismissal of tortious-interference and unfair competition claims brought by a competitor against his client, and securing affirmance of an inter partes reexamination decision in an appeal he argued at the Federal Circuit.

Parth graduated with honors from Harvard Law School, where he led the submissions team for the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology and won the Irving Oberman Memorial Award for best student paper in intellectual property. Prior to law school, Parth used his technical background in computer engineering to write, prosecute, and challenge patents for clients like Apple, Becton-Dickinson, Pixar, and Visa.

Faraaz Samadi Partner

Londra

He has significant experience in identifying and resolving issues which arise in cross-border technology transactions involving Europe, the U.S. and Asia, having worked in London, Singapore and Shanghai.

Faraaz regularly advises clients on technology service agreements, website terms and conditions, data privacy, renegotiations, intellectual property Iicensing and strategic alliances.

He has represented companies in a wide range of industries including software development, satellite and space, mining and resources, mobile, healthcare, digital marketing, automotive, ride-hailing and logistics.

Eric Sanchez Chief Information Security Officer

Seattle

Eric brings to his role at Orrick extensive experience in the military, governmental and corporate sectors. He served for seven years in Intelligence in the U.S. Air Force and for twelve years as a Cyber Intelligence Officer with the Central Intelligence Agency. He has worked in the private sector, including in post-breach situations, both with leading cyber consultants and global enterprises in the U.S. and UK. Most recently, he was Global CISO at publicly traded global pharma group Kyowa Kirin.

Eric serves as an advisor to startups and venture capital firms dedicated to transforming cybersecurity, including Confidencial, Radiant Security, NDAY Security, NightDragon and Halcyon Inc.

Outside of work, Eric enjoys fishing, cruising, visiting Disney parks and traveling to historical sites.