Silicon Valley
Yael has extensive experience with advising founders, investors and boards of tech and life sciences companies at all stages and advises on cutting edge deals and complex transactions, with a focus on venture capital financings, debt financings, mergers and acquisitions and corporate governance. She practices across a variety of industries, including software and technology, energy, gaming, healthcare and life sciences. Yael’s practice also includes advising venture capital firms and strategic corporate investors in their investments into technology and life sciences companies.
Yael’s broad-based domestic and international experience also includes advising Israeli venture capital funds, high-tech firms and startups while practicing at some of the top-rated firms in Tel Aviv.
San Francisco
San Francisco
Uniquely positioned as a business advisor within Orrick, Neel drives opportunities for clients throughout the technology sector.
Neel has always been fascinated with technology’s ability to shape the way we live, work, think and play. At Orrick, he’s able to help technology entrepreneurs and investors capitalize on their innovative vision. To do so, Neel leverages his global network of companies, investors and entrepreneurs to identify fund raising and commercial opportunities, and advise on financing and business strategy. He’s also able to connect clients with the precise legal help to meet their specific needs.
Neel is a graduate of Suffolk University Law School (JD/MBA, International Business). He has served in senior strategy roles at some of the world’s leading law firms and Fortune 500 companies.
Neel is active in the community and is the Co-Chair of the La Scuola Internazionale di San Francisco Advancement Committee, a board member of the La Chaîne des Rôtisseurs Hillsborough Chapter, and serves as secretary of his community HOA. In his free time, Neel enjoys hiking, skiing and traveling with his family.
Seattle
Les is a Partner in the Public Finance practice group in Orrick’s Seattle office. He has served as bond counsel, disclosure counsel and underwriters’ counsel on public and privately placed tax-exempt and taxable debt issued by airports and ports, mass transit agencies, electric and water utilities, industrial development agencies and bond banks, higher education institutions and health care facilities. He has experience in advising clients in such financings in several states and U.S. territories, including Alaska, California, Guam, Nevada, New York, Oregon and Washington.
During the course of his practice, Les has worked on various types of financing structures, including standard general obligation and revenue bond financings, bond and grant anticipation financings, master trust indenture financings, conduit financings, pooled financings, variable rate bonds and current and advance refundings.
Prior to joining Orrick, Les was an associate in the Capital Markets practice group at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft in New York, where he represented major foreign and domestic banks and boutique financial institutions as issuers, depositors, loan sellers, underwriters, initial purchasers and placement agents in connection with approximately $20 billion of public and private offerings of commercial mortgage-backed securities and collateralized loan obligations.
San Francisco
San Francisco
He practices general corporate law and advises both public and private companies in commercial finance transactions, mergers and acquisitions, and securities law and corporate governance matters.
Londra
Joel often works on cases with a multijurisdictional focus and has represented clients from across the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America in disputes seated around the world.
He has also acted for several professional services firms in connection with cross-border litigation, investigations and regulatory enforcement matters.
Joel also acts for sovereign states in actions brought against them. His practice represents clients in all stages of disputes – from pleadings to trial including advising in relation to alternative dispute resolution methods.
Joel joined the firm as a trainee in 2022.
Santa Monica
New York
Neil has spent the bulk of his career working on both tax-exempt and taxable financings for public power clients including joint action agencies, municipal utilities and rural electric cooperatives. He has had many roles in these financings including bond counsel, counsel to the underwriters and counsel to credit enhancers.
Over his career, Neil has worked on financings for joint action agencies and municipal utilities such as Gainesville (Florida) Regional Utilities, Intermountain Power Agency, JEA, Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company, Missouri Joint Municipal Electric Utility Commission, Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia (MEAG Power), Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems and WPPI Energy. The transactions in which Neil has participated have included public offerings, private placements, system and project financings, tax-exempt and taxable financings, secured and unsecured debt, senior and subordinated debt, fixed rate and variable rate debt and derivatives and he has had extensive experience in drafting documents for all of these types of financings. In addition, he has considerable experience with all types of disclosure issues encountered by electric utilities.
Neil also has been involved in a number of transactions involving the acquisition of utility companies and/or utility properties.
Recently, Neil represented MEAG Power in the financing of its undivided ownership interest in the first new nuclear generating facilities constructed on U.S. soil in over 30 years, which involved both taxable and tax-exempt capital markets debt, along with U.S. Department of Energy-guaranteed debt, and which was selected by The Financial Times as one of the most Innovative Deals of 2011.
Before joining Orrick, Neil was a partner at Mudge Rose Guthrie Alexander & Ferdon in New York.
Sacramento
Clients facing complex branding decisions or allegations of IP infringement rely on Seth for his innovative counsel and strategic thinking. With a robust background in both litigation and IP prosecution, Seth not only understands when and how to pursue an aggressive enforcement strategy but also empowers his clients by clearly explaining their options and guiding them toward the most effective solutions.
Over the past decade, Seth has successfully secured registrations and resolved trademark and copyright disputes for a diverse array of clients in industries such as aerospace, entertainment, gaming, software, technology, digital media, artificial intelligence, and retail. He has represented clients before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, in federal court, and in state court. Additionally, Seth has authored numerous widely-read articles and newsletters on a variety of legal topics, including intellectual property and sports law.
Seth is named in the 2024 and 2025 editions of the Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch® in America for his exceptional work in Intellectual Property Law.
Before embarking on his legal career, Seth served as an officer in the U.S. Air Force and as an agroforestry volunteer in El Salvador with the U.S. Peace Corps.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Sten routinely guides clients such as FUJIFILM and Panasonic through the minefields of the ITC. Sten also has long-standing relationships with attorneys in the ITC’s Office of Unfair Import Investigations, developed when he served on the Executive Committee of the ITC Trial Lawyers' Association. Sten’s credibility with this group, combined with his thorough knowledge of the ITC’s speed and complexity, gives his clients a distinct advantage.
Sten has also represented clients in more than 50 federal patent cases, including cases in the top five venues for patent infringement filings. He has particular experience in Delaware, where he served as a judicial clerk for former District Court Judge Roderick McKelvie. Sten has defended numerous corporations against claims filed by aggressive patent trolls, and his cases have protected a wide range of technologies, including integrated circuits, semiconductors, optical disk drives, digital cameras, printers, and other consumer electronics products.
Sten has frequently lectured on intellectual property issues facing companies in the United States, Japan, and Taiwan. He is widely praised by clients for his dedication, knowledge, and skill in guiding them through discovery, merits, and settlement issues. Sten is listed as a recommended lawyer by The Legal 500 USA for patent litigation, and he is ranked by Chambers USA for IP Litigation with clients commenting that “he gave us great ideas and advice, and negotiated very hard for us.”
Wheeling, W.V. (GOIC)
Wheeling, W.V. (GOIC)
Neil works with litigation attorneys and third party vendors to manage the review for cyber incident response, investigations, and litigation. This work includes using early case assessment technology to analyze, categorize, and cull data. He also manages teams of skilled professionals performing document review, quality control, and notification list deliverables.
San Francisco
Serena's practice focuses on representing individuals and companies in a broad range of industries in government and internal investigations, securities litigation, regulatory enforcement actions, and other complex business litigation. Her experiences include conducting internal investigations and representing companies and individuals in investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Drug Enforcement Agency. Serena represents companies in the technology and financial sectors in a wide range of civil disputes including claims of breach of contract and patent infringement.
San Francisco; Sacramento
San Francisco; Sacramento
Sean serves as bond counsel, disclosure counsel, and underwriter's counsel on a variety of public finance transactions, including general obligation and revenue bond financings. Sean's experience includes counseling large public transportation agencies, and assisting in the financing of affordable housing, charter schools and higher education institutions throughout California.
Sean earned his J.D. from the University of California, Davis in 2018, and his B.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2013.