People

Rachel G. Shalev Senior Associate

New York

Rachel represents clients in high-stakes, complex litigation. She has argued successfully in federal and state appellate courts and has been the lead drafter of briefs and dispositive motions in both state and federal court and the U.S. Supreme Court. Rachel’s experience litigating and advising clients covers a wide range of substantive areas. She focuses in particular on tough questions of constitutional law, statutory interpretation, and intellectual property. Rachel also maintains an active pro bono practice.

Prior to joining Orrick, Rachel served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer, Judge Cornelia T.L. Pillard of the D.C. Circuit, and Judge William A. Fletcher of the Ninth Circuit. Rachel received her J.D. from Yale Law School, where she served as a student director of the Supreme Court Advocacy Clinic and as Essays Editor of the Yale Law Journal. She graduated from Williams College and received master’s degrees from University College London and University of St. Andrews, which she attended as a Marshall Scholar.

Marc R. Shapiro Partner

New York

Marc represents clients in federal and state court at the trial and appellate levels with a particular focus on class actions, multi-district litigation, and mass joinders. Among Marc’s current engagements, he represents Johns Hopkins University and Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America in over a dozen class actions arising out of a data breach of the MOVEit file transfer software; University of Washington in a pandemic-related class action seeking refunds of tuition and fees on behalf of students; ZoomInfo Technologies LLC in a data privacy class action alleging unlawful disclosure of personal information under federal and state laws; Goldman Sachs in a pay and promotion gender discrimination class action; NCAA in concussion and injury-related cases throughout the country; Marathon Oil Corporation in nationwide climate change litigation; and multiple foreign defendants in a class action arising out of allegedly defective drywall.

Recently, Marc successfully prevailed at trial before the Delaware Chancery Court and earned Litigator of the Week recognition by Law.com for defeating claims by Netflix star Julia Haart that she owns half the shares of Elite World Group; secured dismissal of a dozen class actions against the University of California and Santa Clara University brought by students seeking refunds of tuition and fees due to COVID-driven transition to remote instruction; and defeated class certification and secured affirmance on appeal by the Ninth Circuit in an employment discrimination class action against Microsoft.

Marc served as a law clerk to Judge Betty B. Fletcher of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Prior to joining Orrick, Marc worked as an appellate and post-conviction attorney for the Equal Justice Initiative. In that capacity, he engaged in trial level and appellate representation of clients in both state and federal court, including two cases that were briefed and argued before the United States Supreme Court.

Gaelyn Sharp Of Counsel

Los Angeles; New York

Gaelyn has represented a wide range of financial institutions including fund sponsors, issuers, underwriters, placement agents, investment advisers and investors in connection with a wide range of financing transactions including collateralized loan, bond and debt obligations; synthetic collateralized debt obligations; trade receivables; various derivative instruments and structured finance products; and private equity funds and hedge funds.

David Sharrow Partner

Boston

David brings a wealth of expertise, focusing on diverse cutting-edge technologies, including life sciences (biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, digital health, genomic technology), fintech, artificial intelligence, information technology (hardware, software, SaaS, and database solutions), edtech, renewable energy, sustainable technologies, AR/VR and cybersecurity.

He advises clients on corporate partnerships, strategic alliances and licensing agreements with leading U.S. and global entities, as well as major research universities and institutes. His experience includes navigating the IP and technology aspects of venture capital financings, public offerings and some of the largest M&A transactions involving venture-backed companies.

David has lectured at major institutions, including Tulane, Yale, Princeton, NYU, Columbia, Cornell and Fordham.

Geoffrey Shaw Senior Associate

Los Angeles

Geoff's experience litigating and advising clients covers a range of substantive areas. He especially focuses on complex issues of constitutional law and civil procedure.  He is passionate about partnering with public defenders and using his appellate experience to help death sentenced prisoners. 

Geoff received his law degree from Yale Law School. Before joining Orrick, he clerked for Judge Stephen Reinhardt on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Justice Anthony M. Kennedy on the U.S. Supreme Court. Geoff previously graduated from Yale College and earned a doctoral degree from Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. 

Gil Shefer Senior Associate

San Francisco

He advises developers and sponsors operating in the energy sector on a wide variety of matters, including tax equity financings, energy storage acquisitions, power purchase and sale agreements, and EPC and supply agreements. Prior to joining Orrick, Gil worked as an economic consultant for the World Bank in their Kigali, Rwanda, office.

Charles Sheldon Senior Associate

Londra

Charlie frequently acts in the energy, technology and media sectors and is experienced in working with a range of clients, from large private and listed corporates, institutional investors and fast growing technology startups. Charlie advises on a variety of matters including acquisitions and disposals, public takeovers, direct listings and admissions on the London Stock Exchange, SPAC transactions, corporate restructurings, investments and corporate governance.

Matthew Shellenhamer Senior Associate

New York

Matthew assists major financial institutions, public and privately owned companies and direct and alternative lenders in effectively assessing legal risks in complex secured and unsecured commercial finance transactions. He advises on a wide variety of finance transactions, including corporate financings, acquisitions, dividend recapitalizations and project financings. 

Prior to joining Orrick, Matthew was an associate in the Project Finance group at Chadbourne & Parke LLP.

Li Shen Senior Associate

Houston

Li has experience representing a broad range of clients through project development and acquisitions and divestitures, including through the negotiation and drafting of master, short-term, and long-term LNG sales and purchase agreements, tolling agreements, methanol sales and purchase agreements, hydrogen purchase and sale agreements, and physically and financially settled power purchase and sale agreements.

Li also has experience working on energy commodity purchase agreements, including oil and gas, power, and renewable energy credits using industry forms such as ISDA, NAESB, EEI, and other ancillary documents. As a Mandarin speaker who has worked in both the United States and China, Li has also leveraged her unique intercultural background to counsel Chinese energy companies in the United States.

Li is also actively involved in pro bono engagements, including asylum and immigration matters.

Sophia Shen Managing Associate

Pechino

Sophia’s practice focuses on IP-related legal advice and litigation. She advises regional and international clients on their IP issues related to both cross-border disputes and transactions.

Sophia focuses on defending Chinese companies in patent and trademark litigation before various U.S. District Courts, as well as Section 337 U.S. International Trade Commission investigations.

She has experience in patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret-related matters, responsible for providing legal counseling, conducting due diligence and legal research, and drafting business contracts.

Jeremy D. Sherer Partner

Boston

Jeremy advises clients on the full range of regulatory health care issues facing digital health stakeholders. His depth and breadth of experience enables him to help established and early-stage companies navigate a complex and ever-changing business and regulatory landscape. As one client’s CEO explained, “Jeremy is one of the best thought partners, and hands down the best legal navigator, I’ve found in the digital health space.”

His telehealth experience includes advising on compliance with state licensure requirements for physicians and non-physician practitioners, corporate practice of medicine issues, remote prescribing (including controlled substances), patient consent and Medicare, Medicaid and commercial reimbursement. He advises clients on compliance with laws against fraud and abuse, including federal and state anti-kickback and self-referral laws, as well as privacy issues arising under HIPAA and its state-level counterparts.

Jeremy has substantial experience pertaining to structuring, operationalizing and scaling “PC-MSO” arrangements across all 50 states. He also advises venture capital and private equity firms conducting regulatory diligence associated with investments in digital health and health care technology ventures, from seed stage funding to nine-figure raises.

Les Sherman Partner

San Francisco

Chambers publications identify Les as a Leading Lawyer and report that clients say Les is an “icon in California in the renewables space”, has "notable expertise spanning solar and wind generation projects as well as battery storage development" and has “established a reputation as the go-to guy in California”.  Chambers also reports that Clients say Les has "a brilliant mind," "his finger on the pulse of the market" and "a very good eye for detail when thinking through practical agreements and understanding how it is all going to work in practice". Clients note "he is one of the best PPA lawyers in the business." Les also is recognized by Euromoney, The Legal 500 and The Expert Guides as a Leading Lawyer in energy project development, M&A and finance.

Les represents many of the industry’s leading companies on project development, financing and M&A transactions for solar, wind, energy storage, biomass, gas and similar projects. Les has led the Orrick team’s thought leadership in the growing battery and hydrogen energy storage market, has published numerous articles on the topic, and has served as lead counsel on many of the largest storage and renewables+storage transactions completed to date.