People

Maria Sanchez Associate

Los Angeles

Maria drafts and reviews purchase and sale agreements, loan agreements and closing documents for investment funds, institutional investors and developers on real estate transactions, including joint ventures, acquisitions, financings, developments and dispositions. She also advises on lease agreements.

While in law school, Maria was a member of the International Human Rights Law Clinic for multiple semesters, where she worked to pass local resolutions in both the cities of Berkeley and San Francisco based on international human rights principles. She also participated in the East Bay Community Law Center’s Community Economic Justice Clinic.

Maria is also passionate about diversity and recruitment efforts. She served as the recruitment chair for La Alianza’s Law Student Association as well as an Admissions Ambassador at Berkeley Law. Now she is an active member of Orrick’s Latinx Attorneys inclusion network.

Maria was previously a summer associate at Orrick in 2020.

Brandon Sanders Of Counsel

San Francisco

Brandon is a corporate attorney in Orrick’s San Francisco office. He concentrates his practice on representing technology and other high growth companies and their investors. Brandon advises companies on day-to-day corporate and transactional matters throughout their growth lifecycle, from formation to early stage and growth stage financings to exit events, and everything in between. In addition, Brandon regularly represents leading private equity, venture capital and other institutional investors on growth, venture and structured equity investments, minority and majority recapitalizations, buyouts and other complex investment transactions. He also has significant experience representing clients in the cleantech and renewable energy industries on securities transactions and joint ventures.

Ravinder Sandhu Partner

Londra

Ravinder represents a wide range of clients in connection with large scale renewable (including onshore/offshore wind, solar and biomass) M&A, joint ventures, corporate restructurings and regulatory matters, as well as in respect of infrastructure and conventional energy assets. She is widely recognised as a leader in wind energy.

Ravinder is a member of Orrick’s Finance and Audit Committee, providing oversight of its financial reporting and audit process, its internal controls, and global compliance with laws and regulation.

Chanani Sandler Of Counsel

New York

Chanani advises multinational companies across all industry lines on a variety of employment-related matters and implementation of global equity compensation programs. He globally manages large multi-country and large multi-function HR projects.

From an employment law perspective, Chanani advises his clients on a wide range of employment-related matters outside the United States, including global/local offer letters and employment contracts, rollout of HR policies and employee handbooks as well as termination and settlement agreements. His work also covers advising clients hiring, HR data privacy compliance, discrimination risks, as well as performance management and terminations. He also works with his clients to consider the employment-related impact of, and undertake due diligence for, cross-border corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, spin-offs, and IPOs.

Chanani also counsels his clients on how to effectively design, implement, communicate and administer equity-based compensation programs and other long-term incentive awards to their employees and other service providers worldwide. His work covers securities law, foreign exchange, employment, tax and other compliance requirements related to these programs. He also provides services in the areas of corporate tax planning, cross-border tax planning, payroll support and employee education with respect to global equity programs, including in the context of corporate transactions.

He has presented at industry educational forums, such as the National Association of Stock Plan Professionals (NASPP) and Global Equity Organization (GEO), on topics related to tax compliance as well as effective design, implementation and administration of global equity-based awards and other long-term incentive plans.

Criselda Haro Sandoval Of Counsel

Los Angeles

She represents lenders, including banks and other financial institutions, and corporate borrowers in a wide range of secured and unsecured commercial financing transactions, including syndicated transactions, asset-based financings, private equity acquisition financings, cross-border transactions and refinancings. Cris also supports other practice groups, including the Mergers & Acquisitions/Private Equity group, the Technology Companies Group and the Energy and Infrastructure group, on financing matters for clients.

Cris is an active member of Orrick LA's recruiting committee. She also regularly engages in various types of pro bono matters, including immigration matters and wills and trusts matters.

Ignacio Sandoval Partner

Washington, D.C.

Ignacio engages with the SEC and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) on behalf of clients on critical matters related to their business by seeking regulatory relief, interpretive guidance, exemptions and as a subject matter expert in enforcement and examination matters. He advises major U.S. broker-dealers in their clearing, retail, trading and institutional businesses, and on their financial responsibility and operational obligations.

Ignacio has counseled numerous broker-dealers on their obligations under the net capital rule (Rule 15c3-1), the customer protection rule (Rule 15c3-3), margin (Regulation T, Regulation U, Regulation X, FINRA Rule 4210, etc.), recordkeeping and reporting rules (Rule 17a-3, Rule 17a-4, Rule 17a-5, Rule 17a-8, Rule 17a-11, Rule 17a-13, etc.) and other middle office and back-office requirements. He has drafted market standard clearing and custody agreements for broker-dealers and has experience working on various types of agreements affecting market intermediaries and participants, including trading agreements, customer agreements, distribution agreements and platform agreements.

Ignacio regularly registers and provides support to alternative trading systems (ATS) and counsels market participants regarding their obligations to register as such. In addition, he has helped broker-dealers develop management platforms for clients involving money market funds and other cash equivalent instruments. He also has experience with cash sweep programs involving money market funds and bank deposit programs insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

Ignacio’s experience also includes matters relating to domestic and foreign broker-dealer registrations, customer account statement and confirmation requirements, mergers and acquisition brokers, anti-money laundering obligations for buy-side and sell-side participants, transaction confirmations and outsourcing broker-dealer technology and platforms. He counsels foreign exchanges and foreign clearing organizations regarding U.S. regulatory obligations on the access of U.S. person to foreign options markets and security-futures products.

Joseph C Santiesteban Partner

Seattle

He brings significant experience advising companies – from one of the largest telecommunications providers to leading entertainment companies to startups on the cutting-edge of AI and more – on the full cycle of an incident. He also advises companies and executives in connection to regulatory investigations, class actions, enforcement actions, and other disputes that frequently flow from privacy and cybersecurity incidents.

Joe helps clients respond quickly and with integrity to protect their brand, build trust and mitigate legal risk. He is highly skilled at directing incident investigations, analyzing potential claims and defenses, examining potential notification obligations and advising on effective communications strategies. He draws on this experience to help companies proactively prepare for an incident through creative strategies that foster engagement and collaboration between legal, security, communications and leadership teams. This includes building and improving incident response programs through response plans, simulated incidents, threat workshops, and training. In addition, Joe assists clients in practically evaluating the legal risk of security decisions in a variety of transactions and across the product lifecycle.

He also provides strategic advice to cybersecurity companies, including those looking to push technological and defense boundaries in cyber defense, incident response, and threat intelligence. This includes helping companies maximize their security offerings by navigating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), and the Federal Wiretap Act, as well as state law analogs.

Joe serves on Orrick’s Finance and Audit and Pro Bono Committees. A leader and advocate for diversity and inclusion initiatives, Joe is the co-head of Orrick’s Latinx Inclusion Network and was selected as a 2024 Rising Star by the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA). He was also named to Lawdragon's 2024 500 X Next Generation Rising Stars List and an Rising Star by the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA). He is a member of the Washington Latino Bar Association and the Hispanic National Bar Association.

Elisabetta Santo Special Counsel

Milano; Roma

Elisa è un avvocato esperto di diritto processuale, che ha affrontato con successo numerosi processi e arbitrati nazionali e internazionali, rappresentando clienti italiani e internazionali come società del settore media & entertainment, fondi di private equity, banche, e ha una vasta esperienza nella gestione di risoluzioni alternative delle controversie.

Elisa ha una vasta esperienza in materia di corporate governance e di diritto contrattuale internazionale e assiste importanti società italiane e multinazionali operanti in diversi settori.

Leah Sanzari Partner

New York

Having long represented issuers of asset backed securities and drawing on that experience, today, in addition to issuer representation, Leah’s practice includes a significant focus on investor-side representation. Leah represents both issuers and investors in complex deals of first impression and brings a unique, creative approach to securitization transactions, with deal execution as top priority.

Leah and her team have pioneered proved developed producing (PDP) oil & gas wellbore securitizations, acting as investor counsel on substantially all of the transactions that have been executed in the market to date. Also a pioneer of the C-PACE market, Leah regularly advises the top C-PACE issuers in both 144A and 4(a)(2) transactions, including Greenwork Lending’s first Rule 144A Commercial PACE securitization which was recognized as the 2022 Esoteric ABS Deal of the Year by GlobalCapital. Leah also advises on novel IP securitizations related to musical composition, sound recording copyrights, television and other royalties. Most recently, Leah represented the investors in the groundbreaking securitization by Syco Entertainment of intellectual property in the “Got Talent” franchise.

Leah’s experience further extends to a wide variety of other esoteric assets, including tax liens, diamond receivables, participations, tax credits, solar and wind ground leases and whole business operating company securitizations.

Recognized in Band 1 of Chambers USA Nationwide Securitization: PACE, Leah is described by clients as “one of the best lawyers that I have worked with” and someone who “fights tooth and nail for her clients.” Resources for the Legal 500 USA directory have called Leah “the best there is in esoteric financing products and bonds,” and note they are “incredibly impressed with the gender diversity on the team. Extremely ethical – name carries a lot of weight with investors.”

Anne Savin Senior Career Associate

Washington, D.C.

Anne brings her unique background to bear on federal appellate matters that cut across a range of substantive areas of the law. She has authored petitions for certiorari, briefs in opposition, and amicus briefs at the U.S. Supreme Court in cases involving civil rights, constitutional, veterans, and immigration law. She also advises clients on cutting-edge developments in the financial technology and artificial intelligence sectors, where disruptive technologies continue to raise fundamental legal questions.

For nearly a decade before joining Orrick, Anne served as an officer in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Corp.  Her military experiences include prosecuting dozens of criminal cases--including rape and murder--at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and Fort Benning, Georgia, advising the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General and other senior Army leaders at the Pentagon on military justice issues, and advising the commander of the Army's only active-duty information warfare brigade in intelligence and operational law in the information and cyberspace domains.  Among other distinctions, Anne was awarded the Bronze Star for her service in Afghanistan with the 82d Airborne Division and is a graduate of the U.S. Army Airborne School.

Before joining the Army, Anne practiced in San Francisco with two AmLaw 100 firms.  Her representative cases include successfully defending an oil-and-gas company against claims brought under the Alien Tort Statute and customary international law, securing a complete defense verdict at trial on alter ego and agency liability allegations against an insurance company, and successfully defending on appeal summary judgments based on professional responsibility violations and statute of limitations grounds.

Alexis Savini Senior Associate

Silicon Valley

Alexis advises high growth technology companies in general formation, venture capital and private equity financings, capital markets and mergers and acquisitions transactions.

Al Sawyers Partner

New York

Al represents issuers and underwriters in the issuance of credit-linked notes, collateralized bond obligations, synthetic convertible bonds and synthetic money market eligible securities. He also works with clients entering into various swap agreements, such as interest rate, credit default, currency, and equity swaps, and has authored alerts on various financial industry-related topics, including the Dodd-Frank Act.

Al has been ranked by Chambers and Partners both globally and nationally in the structured products category. Legal500 has noted Al for his work in structured finance, quoting a client who stated that he has "impressive expertise in all facets of securitization in general, which is immensely helpful when we are working on complex transactions." The International Financial Law Review has also recognized Al for his work in structured finance and securitization. Euromoney notes him as an expert in Banking, Financial and Transactional Law: Structured Finance and Securitization.