Stephen Venuto Partner, Technology Companies Group, Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Silicon Valley; San Francisco
Silicon Valley; San Francisco
Silicon Valley; San Francisco
The Daily Journal has named Stephen one of the Top 100 Lawyers in California (chosen regardless of specialty). Stephen was Facebook’s first lawyer and has advised many other leading companies at critical stages of their lifecycles including Anthropic AI, Asana, Instagram, Pinterest, Warby Parker and WETA Digital.
Stephen cares about the teams he counsels and thrives on providing practical business advice. When The American Lawyer named Stephen “Dealmaker of the Year”, it recognized his corporate work and representation of Instagram in its sale to Facebook and quoted a prominent Instagram board member as saying that he “is an outstanding lawyer, but he’s also an outstanding business partner . . . someone who cares about everybody [who's] involved in a company.” In addition to naming Stephen to its list of Top 100 Lawyers in California, The Daily Journal has named him to its Top Emerging Companies Lawyers list, and Chambers and Partners has recognized and ranked Stephen in two separate categories for several consecutive years.
Numerous standout technology companies and their founders have turned to Stephen for corporate representation at all stages of their life-cycles. Most of his counseling is with technology disruptive clients in fast-growth fields such as artificial intelligence, information technology, metaverse, fin-tech, SaaS, gaming, media and entertainment. His recent prominent counseling includes companies in the artificial intelligence, metaverse and gaming spaces. For example he recently advised WETA Digital in its metaverse and gaming related asset sale to Unity Software (for $1.6 billion) and has advised Anthropic AI from formation through each of its financings.
Singapore
Ari’s practice cuts across sectors, including conventional power, renewable energy (solar, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric), infrastructure, oil & gas and mining throughout the United States and Asia. His combination of project development and finance experience allows him to advise clients on bankability considerations for development matters.
Clients commend him for being “meticulous on the finer details”, and “a firm but calming and amiable presence at the negotiating table.” They add that “he gained our trust” and has “a cost-effective approach and a drive to successfully close deals.”
San Francisco
In the corporate finance and securities areas, his experience includes a range of public and private equity and debt financings, representing U.S., Canadian, European and Asian issuers and underwriters. His transactions have included over one hundred SEC registered and Rule 144A public offerings of securities, ranging from investment grade and high yield debt offerings, convertible note offerings, initial public offerings, follow-on equity offerings and preferred securities offerings, venture capital financings and issuer tender offers.
In the mergers and acquisitions area, Brett has represented clients in all aspects of mergers and acquisitions transactions involving public and private companies, including friendly mergers, leveraged recapitalizations, tender offers, spin-offs, restructurings and purchases and sales of divisions and subsidiaries.
San Francisco
San Francisco
George is also a long-time member of the Public Finance Tax Group, specializing in public power and health care, and is the leading national authority on municipal derivative products. He is principal tax advisor to several major municipal electric utilities and nonprofit healthcare organizations. He also has extensive experience in working with leading banks in creating new financial products, including secondary market synthetic instruments, contingent payment debt instruments, financing strategies for energy, as well as defending the taxation of financial transactions before taxing authorities.
George also has substantial experience defending the tax integrity of financing arrangements in particular as well as tax litigation in general.
San Francisco
Larry's typical representations range from formation and early stage corporate counseling, angel and venture capital financing, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and partnerships to angel and venture fund formations and lending and other commercial transactions. Larry's practice focus on a range of technology companies focused on education technology and education services, software and SAAS based businesses, consumer products to semiconductor businesses.
San Francisco
San Francisco
He advises publicly held and privately owned (including sponsor-backed) companies, financial institutions, credit funds and other alternative lenders in connection with broadly syndicated loans, pro rata (bank-only) credit facilities and a wide variety of private credit transactions (including senior secured, junior lien, senior subordinated and mezzanine loans). His experience also extends to asset-based loans, project financings, debt restructurings and workouts. In addition, Zach regularly represents technology companies on various types of growth capital financings used to rapidly expand their businesses and to deploy new and market-disrupting products and services.
Zach has a particular passion for the digital infrastructure sector, stemming from his extensive experience representing data center operators, service providers, lenders and investors in the space. As one of the leaders of Orrick’s multidisciplinary data center practice, he is well-versed in traditional and increasingly bespoke financing structures to address the unique needs and challenges of clients in this ever-evolving industry.
In the 2025 California Banking & Finance category of Chambers USA, clients praise Zach as “a phenomenal” and describe him as “extremely aware of the market and a great resource when it comes to debt financing.” He is also recognized by IFLR1000, where clients note that Zach “is an outstanding business partner” and “his strengths are his creativity, accessibility, diligence and his ability to bring all of Orrick's resources to bear.”
Zach previously served a three-year term on the Commercial Transactions Committee (formerly called the Uniform Commercial Code Committee) of the Business Law Section of the State Bar of California, acting as its Co-Chair for the final year of his term.
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.
San Francisco
In addition to traditional project finance, revenue, general obligation and other tax supported municipal bonds, Eugene has experience with a variety of financing structures and characteristics, including private activity bonds, structured products, securitizations, pension obligation bonds, swaps and synthetic fixed rate bonds, and various reinvestment vehicles. Early in his career, he pioneered capital markets access for California public charter schools and advised governmental issuers, foundations, advocacy groups and policy makers in the development and expansion of public charter school access to tax-advantaged financing. He has also structured innovative philanthropic investments designed to lower facilities financing costs for public charter schools across the country,
Eugene serves on nonprofit organization boards, including: the Mural Music & Arts Project, an arts-based youth development organization he founded in East Palo Alto, California, to educate, inspire and empower teens through the arts; California Lawyers for the Arts, serving the creative arts community statewide; and the Flywheel Fund, an income sharing-based law school tuition assistance program. He also serves on the steering committee for the Just the Beginning Foundation's San Francisco Bay Area youth education and pre-law programs.
Prior to joining Orrick, Eugene was a public school teacher and science curriculum developer in the South Bronx and Washington Heights neighborhoods of New York City from 1993 to 1998. He is an alumni of the Teach for America Corps.
San Francisco; Santa Monica; Silicon Valley
San Francisco; Santa Monica; Silicon Valley
John focuses his practice on advising emerging companies and investors, and represents both public and private high-tech and life sciences companies in many areas, including corporate and securities law, venture capital financings, mergers and acquisitions, public offerings, public company representation and technology licensing.
The Recorder named John the “2019 Innovator of the Year” for his work as the chief lawyer on the Long-Term Stock Exchange, a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission-approved exchange designed to change the paradigm of traditional stock markets by rewarding entrepreneurs and investors committed to long-term business strategies. Financial Times recognized John as one of the Top 10 Most Innovative Individuals of the Year in 2017, calling him “one of the most influential lawyers in the technology ecosystem of Silicon Valley.” He is ranked Band 1 by Chambers USA California, for Venture Capital and Chambers USA Nationwide, ranked him Band 2 for Startups & Emerging Companies.
John is a Board member and co-founder of the Long-Term Stock Exchange, which is creating a new stock exchange for public companies supporting long-term investors, as well as an advisor and co-founder of Clerky.com, a company automating legal work for early-stage companies. He is also recognized for his work with Y Combinator companies.
At Orrick, John serves as Lead Partner for Transactions and Lead Partner for Innovation & Technology.
Prior to joining Orrick, John was a founding attorney of Venture Law Group and served on the Executive Committee. John previously practiced at Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati. John also served as Mayor of the City of Cupertino, California and a council member from 1993-1997, where he helped build important public partnerships, including with Apple Computer, the Mid-Peninsula Open Space Preserve, and San Jose and California Water Companies.
Londra
Jonathan leads the London Tax team, and his practice is both transactional and advisory. He has extensive experience of UK, cross-border and international tax matters across a variety of business sectors, with a particular focus on Technology & Innovation, Energy & Infrastructure, and Finance.
Jonathan is qualified as a Chartered Tax Adviser (CTA) and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation.
Portland; Seattle
Christine has more than two decades of experience in public infrastructure finance, advising on both traditional bond financings and innovative funding structures. She serves as a Vice-Chair of the Public Finance Group and on the leadership team for the Impact Finance Group.
Christine’s experience includes various general obligation and revenue bond financings, including those relating to transportation, education, healthcare, water and wastewater, economic development, urban renewal, public power and other complex and innovative social and infrastructure financings sometimes involving public-private partnerships (P3) for large transportation and utility issuers, state and local municipalities, and other for-profit and nonprofit corporations.
She has extensive knowledge and experience with disclosure requirements for municipal issuers under federal securities laws, including both initial and continuing disclosure issues, material events disclosure, public offerings, private placements and other municipal securities regulatory matters.
Christine is a frequent speaker at conferences and seminars given by trade and professional organizations within the municipal finance industry, including serving as Chair for The Bond Buyer's 2022 Infrastructure Conference and Board of Directors to Women in Public Finance.
Londra
Following an earlier career as a computer software programmer, Ylan has a passion for technology and innovation across numerous sectors.
Ylan’s notable company-side representations include Currencycloud, EVRYTHNG, Griffin Financial, MFS Africa, nPlan, Railsbank, Signal AI and Taster. One CEO client described Ylan as the “most incredible lawyer… [who I have worked with] for years. He's that good and his deal team is good too.”
In addition to his company-side representations, Ylan acts for leading venture capital and private equity firms and other strategic investors, including Vitruvian Partners, Warburg Pincus, Kennet Capital Partners, Kinnevik, Marlin Equity Partners, Seedcamp, and Oxx.
Ylan has been consistently recognised as a leading venture capital advisor in both Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners. Ylan was described by one client in Legal 500 UK 2022 as “an exceptionally knowledgeable counsel – he helped guide me through a number of challenges around our fundraise with ease, speed and clarity.”
A recent career highlight for Ylan was being invited by HM Treasury to advise on the UK Government’s Future Fund in response to calls from the technology industry to support VC backed start-ups throughout the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.