People

Greg Shields Of Counsel

Austin

Greg’s experience in bond financing includes traditional issuers such as school districts, institutions of higher education, cities, counties, municipal utility districts and state agenciesadvising the issuers on both general obligation and revenue financings. In addition, Greg has represented numerous national and regional investment banks in the underwriting of municipal bonds.

Kyle Amendt Shimomura Associate

San Francisco

Kyle advises companies throughout their lifecycle, including formation, corporate and securities law, venture capital financings and corporate governance matters. In addition to advising companies, Kyle represents venture firms and other investors in connection with their investments in private companies.

Before practicing law, Kyle was a product manager in a leading medical device company. He also worked on multiple units of a nationally recognized children's hospital and sat on the Hospital Ethics Committee.

Jeannie J. Shin Partner

San Francisco

Jeannie advises private and public companies on a full range of their corporate needs, with a focus on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic alliances, corporate restructurings and capital raising transactions. In particular, Jeannie has extensive experience with cross-border transactions. Jeannie has acted as lead M&A counsel in numerous transactions representing clients both on the sell-side and buy-side. She has extensive experience representing clients in a wide range of industries, including software, internet, life sciences, energy, semiconductors, and consumer products and retail. As a member of Orrick’s Technology Companies Group, Jeannie also represents high growth technology companies and venture capital and other investors and has extensive experience with start-up companies in their formation, debt and equity financings, private placements and general corporate counseling.  

Kentaro Shoji Of Counsel

Tokyo

He mainly works on project contracts, including EPC, BOP, O&M contracts and various supply contracts such as TSA. He acquired a great understanding of clients’ needs after a secondment at a Japanese major trading house.

He also has experience advising domestic and overseas financial institutions, real estate funds, real estate developers and other companies on sophisticated real estate and asset finance transactions.

Prior to joining Orrick’s Tokyo Office, Kentaro worked in the Tokyo office of another international law firm where he engaged in cross-border M&A, finance transactions and dispute resolution.

Eric Shumsky Partner

Washington, D.C.; San Francisco

Chambers USA reports that Eric is “hailed as ‘highly intelligent, an effective communicator and a great writer’ by contacts, and his high-profile work in the tech patent sector is of particular interest to those who recognize him as one who ‘prepares meticulously, anticipates every question, and is a gifted orator.’” Legal 500 touts his “exceptional courtroom demeanor and presentation skills” as one of “the finest appellate litigators in the nation.” And Reuters, in a report reviewing some 17,000 practitioners, identified Eric as part of an “elite cadre” of 75 lawyers who are “the most influential members of one of the most powerful specialties in America: the business of practicing before the Supreme Court.”

Eric has served as appellate counsel to a who’s who of leading companies, including AT&T, DISH Network, Facebook, Genentech, Gilead, KPMG, LG Electronics, LinkedIn, Lyft, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Netflix, Norfolk Southern, Synopsys, Twitter, and Union Carbide. Across an array of industries, Eric has briefed and argued issues as diverse as patent and copyright, labor and employment, preemption, punitive damages, environmental law, national security, and foreign sovereign immunity. He has been a primary author of more than 100 briefs in the Supreme Court alone.

Eric has particular proficiency in matters of technology and intellectual property. He regularly litigates novel issues concerning the regulation of the internet, including CDA Section 230, computer fraud, takedown notices, and internet domain names. He has been counsel in dozens of patent appeals in the Federal Circuit—litigating patents ranging from semiconductor construction, computer architecture, and genetic sequencing to tobacco curing, keyboard trays, and electrical junction boxes. A former law clerk on the Ninth Circuit and the Central District of California, Eric has extensive experience in the California state and federal appellate courts where tech issues commonly arise. 

In addition to traditional appellate work, Eric has years of experience developing legal strategy in high-profile and complex cases in trial courts. Eric has performed this role in high-stakes multi-district litigation, criminal trials, and civil litigation involving critical dispositive motions.

Prior to joining Orrick, Eric was a partner in the appellate group at Sidley Austin. 

Robert Shwarts Partner

San Francisco

He represents plaintiffs and defendants in complex trade secret misappropriation cases and has conducted numerous TRO and preliminary injunction hearings in aid of these cases. His practice also includes counseling relating to trade secrets misappropriation and non-compete/non-solicitation agreements.

Rob has broad experience in commercial litigation, having litigated claims of securities fraud, lender liability, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of warranties, claims arising from securitization transactions and other business fraud.

Rob's experience in employment-related litigation includes defending claims of discrimination, wrongful discharge, retaliation, sexual harassment and breach of contract. His practice also includes counseling relating to trade secret misappropriation and non-compete/non-solicitation agreements.

U.S. and international clients with significant California presence turn to Rob to represent them in complex matters, including numerous financial services companies. He handles both jury and bench trials, as well as AAA, JAMS and FINRA (formerly NASD and NYSE) arbitration hearings.

Rob serves as the chair of the Firm’s Practice Management Committee, and is a member of the firm’s Risk Management Committee. Rob previously served as head of the San Francisco office. Rob contributes pro bono hours to the Humane Society and Point Blue Conservation Science each year.

Ramy Shweiky Partner

San Francisco

Ramy advises public and private companies and their financial sponsors in the technology and life sciences sectors on complex, strategic transactions, including cross-border M&A, joint ventures, and multi-jurisdictional carve-outs. He also counsels boards and investors on fiduciary duties and other corporate governance matters.

Ramy is a member of the board of directors of Crisis Text Line, a global not-for-profit organization providing free mental health texting service. He has been recognized as a "Rising Star" in M&A by Super Lawyers.

Sarah Shyy Managing Associate

Orange County

Sarah has broad experience representing investment banks, corporations, and other private and public companies in the financial services and technology industry.  She has advised clients in all stages of litigation from receipt of pre-litigation demands through discovery, expert work, summary judgment, trial preparation, and trial.  She is also active in pro bono matters.

Sarah graduated cum laude from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles.  While in law school, Sarah participated in the Ninth Circuit Appellate Clinic, where she drafted various briefs to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.  She also externed for the Honorable Stephen V. Wilson in the Central District of California. 

Oliver Sikora Senior Associate

Londra

Oliver works primarily on domestic and cross-border transactions in the renewable energy space, and also has experience advising on deals in the transport sector.

Javier A. Silva Managing Associate

San Francisco

Javier's practice spans securities litigation, complex commercial disputes, government and internal investigations, cybersecurity and privacy matters, and regulatory enforcement actions.  In his commercial practice, Javier has represented companies and individuals in a wide range of civil disputes including claims of breach of contract, breaches of fiduciary duty, fraud, and consumer protection issues.  Javier also has experience advising executives and boards on corporate governance best practices and fiduciary and disclosure duties.

Javier joined Orrick after completing a one-year fellowship as an Orrick Fellow at the San Francisco Department of Police Accountability where he focused on criminal justice reform and analyzing Fourth Amendment issues.  

As a law student, Javier worked as a summer judicial extern in the Central District of California, and as a law clerk at the California State Assembly drafting policy and legal memoranda.

Andrew D. Silverman Partner

New York

Andrew is a skilled brief writer who works on significant motions in the trial court to prevent any need for appeal by winning the case first. Drawing on his years as a trial attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice, Andrew collaborates with the trial court team to serve as the point person for law-intensive briefs and strategy. Andrew is frequently retained to work on dispositive motions and preliminary-injunction briefing. If the case proceeds toward trial, Andrew leads strategizing and all manner of briefing from jury instructions to motions in limine to mid-trial objections to post-trial motions.

In addition, Andrew focuses on readying cases for appeal by perfecting critical appellate issues and teeing them up in the most favorable posture. Andrew has brought these special skills to bear for some of the world’s largest companies in their most important cases, including for Dow, Gilead Sciences, Oracle, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Basin Electric Power.

Andrew also has a strong record on appeals, including major wins for Oracle, Dow AgroSciences, Basin, KBC Bank, and the City and County of Los Angeles. In appellate cases, Andrew takes pride in collaborating with his client and the trial team to rethink the case from the bottom up, searching for ways to present even the most complicated arguments as plain common sense, and drafting a storytelling version of the case that hooks the reader from the first page. Andrew emphasizes oral argument, working tirelessly to develop themes specifically for oral argument that magnify -- not merely parrot -- the briefing.

Ariel Simmonds Associate

New York

Ariel represents clients at all stages of their life cycles as they innovate and scale. Ariel counsels clients in a variety of technology-driven industries, including artificial intelligence, SaaS and media. Ariel has experience drafting commercial, licensing and other intellectual property and technology agreements. She also assists clients with intellectual property issues in connection with mergers and acquisitions.

Ariel is active in pro bono matters, focusing on licensing and corporate matters for historically underrepresented clients. Through her law school clinic, Ariel filed trademark registrations for early-stage startup clients on a pro bono basis. 

Prior to joining Orrick, Ariel spent over two years interning with a property-tech startup and then a cruise line, supporting their respective marketing teams on CAN-SPAM and TCPA compliance. Ariel also draws on her experience in the business valuation and SBA 7(a) financing industry when advising on mergers and acquisitions.