People

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.

Anna Suh Partner

Sacramento

For years, Anna has worked with companies at all stages of their life cycles to find legal solutions that advance the goals of their business. With a particular passion for helping early to mid-stage technology and life sciences companies, Anna deeply knows the challenges these companies face and is able to provide practical solutions on a wide variety of day-to-day employment law issues, including leave and other accommodations, worker classifications, onboarding, performance management and terminations. Disruptors and innovators in the tech space face unique challenges and require advisors who are willing to jump in and immerse themselves in the company as a whole, and Anna happily works to understand her clients’ company culture and long-term goals while helping them effectively meet short-term legal challenges.

Anna also guides companies through the employment challenges that can accompany financings, mergers and acquisitions, and initial public offerings. Her litigation background, defending companies in employment litigation matters involving co-founder disputes, misappropriation of trade secrets and confidential information, employee mobility, discrimination/harassment, wage and hour, equity and token grants, and other compensation related issues, informs her approach to counseling and allows her to identify and address issues before a problem becomes contentious. In the event of threatened or actual litigation, Anna is prepared to aggressively litigate disputes to achieve the best outcomes for her clients.

Mike Sullivan Partner

San Francisco

Some of Mike's clients have included:

• Artyc PBC (refrigerant-free cold storage and shipping; funded by Lowercarbon Capital, True Ventures and SOSV)
  
• AIMotive, Inc. (autonomous vehicle software; funded by Robert Bosch Venture Capital; Tim Draper and others)
• Alta Reality (virtual reality; funded by a16z and others)
• EarnUp (loan optimization platform; funded by Blumburg Capital and SignalFire)
• Earth.AI Inc. (AI-enabled platform for mineral discovery; Y Combinator)
• Earthshot Labs (platform for nature-based carbon sequestration projects; funded by Acorn Pacific Ventures)
• Fountain Therapeutics (discovery and development of treatments for aging-associated diseases; undisclosed investors)
• Goodly Inc. (student loan repayment as an employee benefit; Y Combinator)
• Grabango (checkout-free technology; funded by Propel Venture Partners, Ridge Ventures and Commerce Ventures)
• Hangar One Vodka (acquired by Jose Cuervo)
• JOSH.AI (AI control for the smart homes; undisclosed investors)
• Kloudfuse (AI-enabled unified data observability platform; funded by Blumberg Capital, Newlands and others)
• Matterport (3D scanning solutions; Nasdaq MTTR)
• Mayfield Robotics (home robots)
• Medcorder Inc. (healthcare tech; funded by Future Ventures)
• Movidius (computational image processor chips; funded by DFJ Esprit; Atlantic Bridge and others; sold to Intel)
• Neptune Flood Incorporated (AI-enabled insurtech solutions for flood insurance; funded by Bregal Sagemount and FTV Capital)
• Planet Labs (satellite data company; NYSE: PL)
• Quidnet Energy Inc. (energy storage; funded by Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Evok Innovations)
• Radiant Graph (AI platform to drive personalization for healthcare organizations; funded by True Ventures and M13)
• Safehub (earthquake sensors; funded by A/O PropTech, Fusion Fund, Ubiquity Ventures and others)
• Samasource Impact Sourcing (machine learning training; funded by Ridge Ventures and CDPQ)
• SquareTwo (casual games; funded by Walden Ventures and Translink)
• St. George Spirits (spirits company focused on single malt whiskey, bourbon, agricole rum, absinthe, gin, brandies and liqueurs)
• StartOut (LGBTQ+ entrepreneurship accelerator)
• Tempo Interactive (home fitness platform; funded by Softbank, Norwest Ventures, General Catalyst and others)
• TS Conductor (next generation conductor technology; funded by Breakthrough Energy Ventures)
• Unison (proptech; funded by F-Prime and RBC)
• Zeguro Inc. (insuretech - cyberinsurance; funded by Mosaik Partners; Healthy Ventures, Social Capital and others)

Mike also represents a number of venture capital firms, including Blumberg Capital, Evok Innovations,  Griffin Gaming Partners, iGlobe Partners, Illuminate Ventures, Marcy Venture Partners, Ridge Ventures and Walden Venture Capital.

Tahiya Sultan Of Counsel

San Francisco

She has extensive experience working on regulatory compliance at the state level, advising on energy purchase and storage, resource adequacy, central procurement, renewables portfolio standard, integrated resource planning, reliability, distributed energy resources, energy efficiency, microgrid commercialization and offshore wind development.

She represents developers, power producers, community choice aggregators and utilities in bilateral negotiations for the purchase and sale of energy resources, including solar, wind and geothermal resources.

Rose Sun Managing Associate

Silicon Valley

Rose has experience litigating patents from the investigatory, pre-suit phase, discovery, expert discovery phase up to trial and post-trial. Rose’s experience in technology ranges from complex server systems, semiconductors, electronic ticketing software/hardware, to shavers and pharmaceuticals. Rose has experience litigating small molecule drugs under the Hatch-Waxman framework and biologics under the BPCIA. Her wide range of technological experience and understanding allows her to simplify complex technology into digestible key components for judges and juries. Rose helped secure a General Exclusion Order for a small business client in front of the International Trade Commission, and was part of a team that secured a favorable settlement for Gilead in protecting their blockbuster HIV drugs Descovy, Odefsey and Vemlidy. The suit involved nine generic drug companies and 15 abbreviated drug applications and resulted in a favorable settlement barring generic entry for at least 10 years.

As part of a lean team, Rose helped secure a $17.3 million royalty for Continuous Composites, which is currently the largest award in the 3D printing industry.

In law school, Rose won the prestigious Anthony and Susan Taylor Written Advocacy Award for Best Brief, and a semifinalist in the Oral Advocacy portion of the Hale Moot Court competition. During law school, Rose also clerked at the Children’s Law Center of California, and advocated for abused and disenfranchised children in the Los Angeles county dependency court.

Her zealous pro bono work and advocacy continues beyond law school. Recently, Rose secured a crucial and timely win for the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund in convincing the Western District of Texas from enjoining the enforcement of unconstitutional provisions of the Texas Election Code in light of the 2022 Primary Elections.

Kim Olivia Supe-Dienes Associate

Düsseldorf

She advises start-ups from their incorporation through their first financing rounds into the growth phase, as well as on internationalization projects. Kim also advises VCs and corporate venture capital investors on their investments.

Before starting her legal practice, Kim worked as a trainee lawyer for, amongst others, the EU’s Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW), for one of the most renown German law firms as well as for Orrick.