People

Zac Padgett 合伙人

Austin

Zac advises clients on:

• growth equity transactions
• buyout acquisitions and mergers
• venture capital investments
• exit transactions
• take-private deals
• management buyouts
• joint ventures
• private placements
• debt-like preferred equity and project finance investments

As co-lead of the firm’s Energy Tech Team, Zac focuses on supporting companies and investors developing technologies like hyperscale data centers, alternative fuels, carbon capture, eVTOL aircraft, agtech and digital infrastructure. Zac is a key member of Orrick's energy transition practice, which was recognized as Band 1 in Energy Transition by Chambers USA (2023).

Zac is passionate about legal tech and implementing AI tools to enhance legal services. He helps lead the firm’s MAPE 2.0 project team, a platform that transforms M&A execution, which won the Financial Times' Reinventing the Legal Practice category.

Jeff Quilici 顾问律师

Austin

Experience matters.  Lawyers must help generalist judges and lay juries quickly grasp intricate topics in unfamiliar areas.  Jeff has written software, managed engineers, run a business, and helped judges at all levels decide cases and draft opinions.  He uses this diverse background to translate complex technical, commercial, and legal concepts into simple and persuasive language that courts, juries, and clients can comprehend.

Jeff's practice focuses on appeals of all stripes, intellectual property litigation, and complex commercial litigation. He has represented clients in industries ranging from computer hardware and software, to cellular telephony, oil and gas, real estate, construction, and many others. In the process, he has assisted clients on matters involving alleged breach of contract, negligence, patent infringement, and trade secrets, as well as in federal appeals on a variety of issues.  Jeff also has represented clients before the International Trade Commission in product exclusion investigations, and before the Patent and Trademark Office in the prosecution of patent applications and inter partes review proceedings. 

Prior to joining Orrick, Jeff served as a law clerk for Justice Neil M. Gorsuch on the U.S. Supreme Court and, several years earlier, for then-Judge Gorsuch on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.  Between his clerkships, Jeff worked as an associate at two major national law firms, where he engaged in a mixture of commercial litigation, patent litigation, patent prosecution, and appeals. Before law school, Jeff designed and wrote software in Silicon Valley, managed engineering teams at a high-technology startup company that later went public, and founded his own real estate investment and brokerage practice.

Taylor Raymond 高级律师

Austin

Taylor’s practice focuses on public finance, which includes representing local governments, state agencies, institutions of higher education, special districts and school districts in connection with infrastructure, financings and related projects. Taylor also has extensive experience representing national and regional investment banks in the underwriting of municipal bonds.

Taylor successfully completed the Fullbridge Program in September 2017.

Justin B. Rosas 主理律师

Austin

Justin’s practice focuses on public finance, which includes the representation of local government entities, including: state agencies, municipalities, school districts, and special districts; non-profit organizations; and financial institutions that serve as underwriters to municipal bonds. Prior to joining Orrick, Justin represented and counseled government entities and private corporations in litigation matters. 

Nikita Shah 合伙人

Austin; 旧金山

Niki advises entrepreneurs, senior in-house leadership, and investors of technology companies at all stages and across a broad range of industries, including consumer internet, enterprise software, AI, fintech, edtech, delivery, healthcare, retail, digital media and sharing economy.

Leveraging a unique professional background, Niki is a trusted advisor to founders and provides strategic insights as outside general counsel to startups, from pre-seed to exit.

Niki has advised companies and venture capital firms on over 150 transactions, including venture capital financings, mergers and acquisitions, public offerings and secondary offerings, with an aggregate transaction value in excess of $20 billion.

Niki’s prior company-side representations include Yelp, DocuSign (IPO team), Blue Nile, Origin Materials, Orbus Therapeutics, Singularity Education Group, SmartRecruiters, and TravelBank, among others.

Niki has also represented leading venture capital firms and strategic investors, including a16z, Battery Ventures, General Catalyst, Institutional Venture Partners, Spark Capital, SVB Capital, Temasek and Founders Fund, among others.

Before joining Orrick, Niki served as the Associate General Counsel at MasterClass, where she provided legal and strategic counsel on corporate and equity matters, BD and strategic partnerships, product development, content and production, marketing, IP, and data privacy. Niki started her emerging companies and venture practice at Cooley LLP and advised startup companies in-house at Techstars.

Greg Shields 顾问律师

Austin

Greg’s experience in bond financing includes traditional issuers such as school districts, institutions of higher education, cities, counties, municipal utility districts and state agenciesadvising the issuers on both general obligation and revenue financings. In addition, Greg has represented numerous national and regional investment banks in the underwriting of municipal bonds.