People

Jessica Stern Associate

San Francisco

Her experience also includes providing clients with IP diligence and patent portfolio management advice, including preparing competitive landscapes, patentability assessments, and freedom to operate analyses. She is a graduate of University of San Francisco School of Law and has a master’s degree in Biochemistry from the George Washington University.

Prior to pursuit of a career in law, Jessica worked in industry on the development of novel cancer and autoimmune disease therapeutics and biomarkers in both early discovery and clinical laboratory settings.

Guy Stevenson Senior Associate

Londra

In addition to advising established financial services firms, Guy advises new innovative Fintech businesses on UK regulation including whether their activities will require authorisation and how best to launch their business in the UK. He has significant experience advising firms on regulatory issues connected to the selling of financial services products through apps and online journeys.

Guy frequently advises clients on financial crime issues, including AML controls, reporting obligations, failure to prevent offences, anti-corruption and market abuse.

He has a deep knowledge of consumer credit law and excels in providing practical advice on how the law/regulation should be interpreted and applied.

He also advises on contentious matters including regulatory investigations and conduct issues.

Damon Stewart Of Counsel

New York

Damon focuses his practice on state and locally based legislative and regulatory issues. He has experience inside of government, having served as Assistant Counsel to the New York Senate Majority. Subsequent to his time in the Senate, he served as a Vice President for the Parkside Group, a New York lobbying firm. He eventually transitioned to an in-house corporate position as Vice President for State Government Affairs for DIRECTV, with a national purview overseeing all aspects of state and local legislative matters for the company. Immediately prior to joining Orrick, he served as Vice President of Government Affairs and State Advocacy Coordinator at AT&T, maintaining national responsibility for satellite-related issues.

Andrea Alfonso Stigliano Of Counsel

Milano

Andrea vanta una solida esperienza su tematiche di anti-riciclaggio e export sanctions, crimini finanziari, reati societari, reati di bancarotta, reati ambientali, salute e sicurezza sul lavoro, reati a tutela della proprietà intellettuale e della privacy e crimini informatici.

Prima di far parte di Orrick, Andrea ha lavorato nella sede di Milano di Clifford Chance per 8 anni e, nel 2017, ha trascorso sei mesi nella sede di Londra lavorando su pratiche sia domestiche sia transnazionali.

Sarah Stockley Partner

Londra

Sarah resolves disputes for clients in a variety of forums including international arbitration (both commercial under ICC, LCIA, SIAC and HKIAC Rules etc. seated in various jurisdictions and investor state, under ICSID, and UNCITRAL Rules and ad hoc proceedings) and sits as arbitrator. Sarah appears before the English High Court and the DIFC Court, is adept at supervising and managing cross-border litigations in many other jurisdictions, including the Middle East, West Africa (Nigeria, Ivory Coast) India, Asia and South America and works under both common and civil law regimes.

In addition to acting in traditional onshore and offshore energy disputes both upstream and downstream, Sarah has a keen interest in the renewables and alternatives sectors, combining her experience of infrastructure disputes, including those relating to power and energy transmission, with the changing environments in which our clients operate during the Energy Transition. Sarah has conducted cases in the renewables sector, and also frequently represents clients in mediation and uses ADR techniques to achieve favourable settlements.

Sarah is recognised for International Arbitration by Legal 500 UK, as well as being noted as a Rising Star by Super Lawyers.

Davin M. Stockwell Of Counsel

Orange County

Davin has experience in litigating and prosecuting patents in a wide variety of technology fields, including in-flight entertainment systems, semiconductors, semiconductor fabrication, design verification, computer software and hardware, power systems, financial services, e-business, business methods, medical and dental devices, and biotechnology.

Davin's experience includes preparing petitions for inter partes review and requests for inter partes and ex parte reexamination, and he is lead counsel in several inter partes review proceedings. Davin also counsels clients with regard to intellectual property strategies and has experience with prosecution of trademark applications, registration of copyrights, and protection of trade secrets. He further provides counseling and opinion services with regard to a diverse range of intellectual property matters.

Prior to joining Orrick, Davin was an associate at Lyon & Lyon LLP. Before and during law school, he was employed as an electrical engineer, developing peripheral devices for portable computer applications. Davin further has over a decade of electrical and mechanical design experience with commercial and military systems.

Laurie Strauch Weiss Partner

New York

Laurie advises companies on overall strategies, from pre-litigation assessments to the final resolution of matters, which often involve novel scientific issues. Her clients frequently enlist her to strategically address the scientific claims asserted by non-governmental organizations, the plaintiffs' bar and consumer advocacy groups which affect the reputation of their products both before and during litigation.

Laurie is a frequent lecturer, author and media source on topics concerning mass tort/class actions, complex scientific issues and expert witnesses.

Prior to joining Orrick, Laurie was an associate at Donovan Leisure Newton & Irvine LLP, where she gained extensive experience in complex litigation including class actions based on product liability, securities RICO and fraud claims.

Alex Straughn Patent Agent

Houston

Alex has authored scientific papers in peer-reviewed publications examining the molecular basis of regenerative myogenesis and cancer-induced cachexia. His doctoral work in Anatomical Sciences and Neurobiology from the University of Louisville focused on transgenic animal studies and in vitro paradigms to discern critical signaling pathways necessary for the repair of skeletal muscle. He has extensive experience in molecular biology, including the generation of viral vectors and CRISPR/Cas9 constructs, and in performing electrophysiological recording of skeletal muscle in situ. In his postdoctoral studies, he focused his research efforts on interrogating the molecular basis for the induction the skeletal muscle wasting disorder “cachexia” in a novel model of ovarian cancer-induced cachexia.

Anna Stuart Senior Associate

New York

Anna provides strategic cybersecurity compliance counseling and develops bespoke, forward-looking incident preparedness strategies. She also supports cybersecurity risk assessments and tabletop exercises designed to identify potential gaps.

She also counsels on incident response matters by directing incident investigations, analyzing claims and defenses, examining potential notification obligations and counseling on communications strategies. She provides guidance on the regulatory investigations, class actions and contract disputes that flow from the announcement of privacy and cybersecurity incidents. She has defended Fortune 500 companies in state and federal courts across the nation on cybersecurity and general business issues.

During law school, she was a Legal Intern at the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Cyber Crime Division.

Dana Sublett Associate

Washington, D.C.

Before joining Orrick, Dana served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Todd M. Hughes of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Dana graduated magna cum laude from Duke University School of Law. She also graduated magna cum laude from Texas A&M University with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering, a minor in French, and a certificate in Engineering Therapeutics Manufacturing. Prior to law school, Dana worked as an engineer in a Texas-based semiconductor manufacturing facility.

Peter Sugden Partner

Londra

On the company side, Pete advises on the full range of corporate transactional and advisory matters including incorporation and structuring matters, venture capital financings, governance, M&A activity and exit events, as well as the day-to-day matters and broader commercial transactions that high-growth companies encounter as they scale.

In addition, Pete regularly represents a wide range of venture funds, growth equity funds and other strategic investors on their investments into high-growth companies and portfolio company-related matters.

Pete has worked in a broad range of sectors and has particular experience advising clients operating in the European tech ecosystem. Pete also has extensive private equity experience, particularly in the context of sales of high-growth companies to private equity buyers.

Pete is recommended by Legal 500 UK 2022 with its client reviews including "Pete Sugden is outstanding. He combines exceptional legal skills with a practical approach, and to top it all off, he’s a pleasure to work with" and "Pete Sugden offers a superb level of balanced advice and service."

Pete has served as a guest lecturer to the Masters Degree in Corporate Law at Cambridge University and the LLM Masters of Law at the London School of Economics, and acted as a mentor to a climatetech programme at Oxford University.

Hiroki Sugita Partner

Tokyo

He also has extensive experience in fund formation, real estate and various types of finance transactions.

Hiroki has a deep understanding of clients’ needs from his secondment experience with a U.S. investment bank in 2005 and a Japanese major trading house from 2012 to 2014.

Prior to joining Orrick, Hiroki worked at O’Melveny’s Tokyo office as a counsel where he mainly worked on cross border M&A.