Monaco
His professional focus is on providing legal advice in complex post-M&A and shareholders' disputes, in which he can particularly make use of his many years of experience as an M&A lawyer.
In addition, Sebastian advises his clients in disputes relating to major construction projects, manager liability cases and in other commercial disputes.
He also has extensive experience in advising clients on M&A transactions and corporate law matters.
Besides the above, Sebastian particularly deals with Legal Tech and Blockchain technology developments and frequently shares his knowledge by publishing articles in legal and social media.
Before joining Orrick, Sebastian worked in the Munich office of a renowned German law firm and in the Toronto office of a major Canadian law firm.
Monaco
He regularly advises founder teams on the establishment of a two-tier U.S./German holding structures, be it in connection with their admission to a U.S. accelerator or be it for better access to early-stage financing opportunities in the richer U.S. funding ecosystem.
During his legal training, Onur had been with the M&A practice of a Big Four accounting firm and the legal department of a major German technology company in Germany and Canada. In 2022, Onur worked from our San Francisco and Menlo Park offices for three months to take a deep-dive into the Silicon Valley's start-up ecosystem.
Monaco
He advises start-ups and scale-ups on their foundation, financing rounds and growth phases as well as on internationalization projects. He also advises VCs and corporate VCs on their investments.
Before starting his legal practice, he also worked as a trainee lawyer for a U.S. law firm in its San Francisco office.
Miami
Matthew concentrates his practice on mergers and acquisitions, private equity investments, and securities transactions. He also counsels clients on corporate governance.
Portland
He has worked with Indian tribes in more than a dozen states on a variety of projects, such as financings for land acquisitions; health clinics; schools; government administration buildings; cultural centers; sewer, water and other infrastructure development; parks and recreation facilities; motor vehicle and aircraft purchases; manufacturing plants; and gaming and entertainment facilities.
Chicago
Amanda’s practice centers on all types of intellectual property matters including patent, trademark, copyright, and trade secret litigation. Amanda also handles other civil litigation matters including commercial and contract-based disputes.
Amanda clerked for Chief Judge Mary H. Murguia of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and for Judge Arenda Wright Allen of the Eastern District of Virginia. During her tenure on the fast-paced “rocket docket,” Amanda assisted Judge Allen in all aspects of presiding over several jury trials and in managing her weighty civil docket. While clerking on the Ninth Circuit, Amanda was intimately involved in oral argument preparation, case strategy, and opinion drafting for both en banc and three-judge panel proceedings. Both clerkships give Amanda invaluable “behind the scenes” experience and an understanding of persuasive writing and argument techniques as well as the mechanics of judicial decision making. Amanda uses these insights and her ability to quickly identify the tipping point of complex cases to clearly and concisely draft the most compelling argument on behalf of her clients.
Prior to clerking, Amanda was previously an associate at another national law firm, where she handled commercial, appellate, and intellectual property matters. She also served as a PILI Fellow at the National Immigrant Justice Center while studying for the bar examination.
During law school, Amanda served as the Editor in Chief of the Journal of Law and Policy and her student note—(Il)Legal Violence at the Border: A Comparative Analysis of LGBTQ+ Asylum Claims in the United States and Europe—was published in the same. She also earned a Certificate in Public Interest Law and authored the top-ranked Respondent’s brief in the Wiley Rutledge Moot Court Competition.
Amanda is deeply committed to pro bono work. She has successfully represented several asylum seekers from around the world as well as incarcerated individuals alleging civil rights violations.
New York
Her practice focuses on project development, acquisitions, and financing, including debt and tax equity financing, in the renewable energy and infrastructure sectors.
Chicago
Russell represents private credit funds, asset managers, banks, sponsors, borrowers and other investors in financings for a wide range of energy and infrastructure asset classes, including solar, wind, battery storage, conventional power and other infrastructure projects. With extensive private credit experience, Russell is skilled at structuring and documenting complex financing structures such as senior secured project-level financings, back-leveraged financings, term loan A, term loan B and asset-backed loans.
Houston
Guy Topaz is a versatile litigator whose practice spans complex commercial and financial services disputes in federal and state courts, domestic arbitration, white-collar investigations, and regulatory enforcement actions.
Guy counsels and represents individual and corporate clients including technology companies, global asset managers, Fortune 500 corporations, and private-equity sponsors in high-stakes matters in courts throughout the country. Guy draws upon his federal and state clerkship experiences, and his diverse international background in China, Europe, and the Middle East, to provide practical solutions that safeguard client objectives and reputation. Prior to joining Orrick, Guy practiced in the New York and Washington, D.C. offices of an international law firm.
Düsseldorf
His focus is on contractual disputes in the energy, infrastructure, and technology sectors, where his clients benefit from his experience in high-volume arbitration proceedings. In addition, Kevin is well-versed in legal disputes in the supply industry, the iron and steel industry, and investment arbitration.
In the field of arbitration, he handles proceedings under all relevant arbitration rules, including DIS, ICC, LCIA, UNCITRAL, and AAA.
Before joining Orrick, Kevin deepened his specialized knowledge in litigation and conflict resolution through by working for three other leading international law firms in Germany and internationally.
Düsseldorf
Robert has always been fascinated by new technologies and digitization. Pursuing his fascination, he focused his legal studies on media law, intellectual property law and data protection law. Prior to working at Orrick, he also gained experience by founding a company that provided a software as a platform solution and working for a German venture capital investor. His legal advice on technology transactions—in particular, SaaS and IP agreements, e-commerce-related topics, related assistance in mergers and acquisitions or core data privacy—thus reflects not only his legal experience but also his experience and fascination with new technology. Being an IT and IP lawyer with a very commercial mindset, Robert drafts and negotiates all sorts of IT and IP agreements, for small to medium companies and large multinationals. He advises on privacy compliance—in particular drafts, privacy policies, and national as well as international data processing agreements—or provides his knowledge with the assessment of the IP/IT and privacy matters in M&A transactions.
He joined Orrick in 2017 after working as a scientific researcher in the field of Data Privacy.
Parigi; Paris Tech Studio
Parigi; Paris Tech Studio
Ben is the founding partner of Orrick's French Tech Companies Group. For more than 15 years, he has been advising high-potential innovative companies as well as venture and tech growth investors on all their corporate private equity and M&A transactions in France and globally.
As such, he is involved in every stage of their development, from incubation and fundraising to external growth and industrial exits as well as public offerings (IPO, secondary).
Ben has significant experience advising French companies expanding into the United States, and assists them over the full lifecycle of their overseas growth. He also counts a number of American investors and buyers among his clients.
From his first venture deal in 2006, where he represented Lightspeed Venture Partners in Wikio’s Series A, which became Teads, a company he then accompanied for 11 years until its sale to Altice, Ben has led more than 330 corporate tech transactions. He has been involved in the main exit transactions in recent years, particularly those with a franco-american element such as Neolane/Adobe, La Fourchette/TripAdvisor, Stupeflix/GoPro, eNovance/Red Hat, Regaind/Apple, Zenly/Snap, Teads/Altice, Getaround/Drivy, Glose/Medium, Sqreen/Datadog, Lalilo/Renaissance Learning, Tempow/Google, Context/Integral Ad Science, Monk/ACV Auctions, Cajoo/Flink, Shipfix/Veson Nautical, Bereal/Voodoo.
Ben's leadership has contributed to placing Orrick as the #1 Venture Capital and Tech Growth practice in France (ranked #1 by Pitchbook in 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021 - CF News in 2024, 2023, 2022).
Recognized as a key lawyer in the market in venture capital and tech growth, Ben was ranked No. 1 in the "Top 10 Influential French Venture Capital Lawyers in Private Equity 2023" by Business Today. He was named "Lawyer of the Year" in the 2026 and 2023 editions of Best Lawyers France in the Venture Capital category. He is also ranked as a Leading Individual by The Legal 500 EMEA in Private Equity - Venture Capital/Growth Capital since 2020 and was voted as the most active tech lawyer in France in 2019 by transaction volume in CF News’ ranking.
Ben is the founder of Orrick Paris Tech Studio, a one of a kind office and working space created in June 2022 and located in the heart of the Paris Tech scene, which is the headquarters of Orrick's French Tech practice.