New York
Dennisse represents investors, issuers, underwriters, and other market participants across a broad spectrum of securitization and structured finance transactions. She has experience with a wide variety of asset classes, including commercial PACE liens, credit and charge card receivables, PDP oil and gas wellbore interests, and student loans.
Seattle
Prior to Orrick, Meghan worked at Ramboll, a global engineering, architecture, and consulting company. Meghan worked as an ESG and Sustainability consultant based in the Seattle office, where she served as the local subject matter contact for a global team of environmentally-focused ESG experts. In her role, Meghan delivered buy-side ESG due diligence assessments for private equity clients and assisted corporate clients with ESG program development through priority assessments, target setting exercises, disclosure framework alignment, and ESG report writing. In addition, Meghan worked with colleagues to develop competencies related to ESG, climate, air quality, and environmental justice deliverables. Meghan has worked for clients in several industries, including healthcare, food products, infrastructure, and beauty.
Meghan is a thought leader in environmental justice, and presented on the nascent state of environmental justice, corporate attention and regulation at the Pacific Northwest International Section (PNWIS) of Air & Waste Management Association (A&WMA) in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho in October 2022.
San Francisco
San Francisco
Prioritizing the importance of client relationships and formulating viable solutions tailored to each client’s unique strategic goals, Rich works extensively in the healthcare, energy prepay and public utilities and affordable housing housing sectors. He serves as the lead tax attorney on dozens of transactions each year. This substantial deal volume has given Rich experience with myriad complex and unique tax issues associated with such transactions and allows him to provide clients with practical guidance and market-tested advice.
Healthcare: Rich has focused on healthcare transactions for over two decades. Clients range from large systems such as Kaiser and Sutter to single-site hospitals. Deals include multibillion green bond deals to finance environmentally friendly improvements, complex acquisition financing deals, workout deals for financially distressed systems, smaller equipment financing deals, and everything between.
Energy Prepay and Public Utilities: Rich has served as tax counsel on many gas and electricity prepayment transactions for clients which include Black Belt Energy District and Southeast Energy Authority. Rich has worked with the Bonneville Power Administration and a California Electric Utility Company for over 20 years on a range of financing programs primarily aimed at financing and refinancing Bonneville’s nuclear generating resource and the California Electric Utility Company's generation, distribution, and transmission facilities. In addition, Rich has an extensive history working on deals for the San Diego County Water Authority and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.
Affordable Housing: Rich focuses on the tax-exempt financing of all types of housing projects, including 100% affordable projects that combine tax-exempt bonds with low-income housing tax credits, workforce housing projects that cater to middle income tenants, and mixed income housing.
Aside from transactional work, Rich is also an advocate, representing governmental issuers, conduit borrowers, and investment banks in IRS and other regulatory proceedings, including tax-exempt bond audits, voluntary closing agreement program (VCAP) requests, and requests for private letter rulings. Rich has successfully closed IRS examinations relating to multifamily housing, healthcare, solid waste, and arbitrage matters. He has been involved in numerous regulatory and legislative projects and has found that a strong working relationship with IRS and Treasury Department personnel facilitates obtaining good results.
Rich served on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Bond Lawyers (NABL) from 2011 to 2021 and, in 2019-20, was President of NABL. Rich has written and lectured extensively on the tax aspects of public finance transactions, having served as editor of the Federal Taxation of Municipal Bonds Deskbook, chaired the National Association of Bond Lawyers Bond Attorneys Workshop, and served on several other panels at industry seminars and roundtables. Rich became a fellow of the American College of Bond Counsel in 2018.
San Francisco; Sacramento
San Francisco; Sacramento
Justin's practice is focused primarily in the following areas:
Justin is on the Board of Directors of the California Housing Consortium and is a past Chairman of the Bond Buyer's California Public Finance Conference. He speaks frequently at conferences and other industry events.
Justin is known in the affordable housing community in particular for being a solution-oriented lawyer who understands the business fundamentals of affordable housing and real estate finance as well as being fully versed in the applicable laws and regulations. He frequently collaborates with developers and other participants in the development of new financial structures and products designed to lower overall financing costs for housing providers and thereby increase both the supply and quality of available affordable housing.
San Francisco
Cathy also engages in complex commercial litigation including employee mobility, breach of contract, and fraud cases. Her matters are often high-profile and industry-changing. Cathy's practice also includes trade secrets investigations as well as counseling on joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, third-party vendor relationships, and emerging technology to help minimize the risk to companies. Cathy has significant experience in actions arising from the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA), which created the first federal civil misappropriation of trade secrets claim in May 2016. Cathy has helped shape DTSA law on behalf of her clients through her involvement in some of the earliest DTSA litigation. Many of her trade secrets cases involve parallel criminal proceedings.
For her achievements, Legal 500 recognized Cathy as a "Leading Lawyer" in trade secrets in 2024 and 2025. The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association also honored Cathy as a 2019 Best Lawyer Under 40. This annual list recognizes individuals within the APA community who have achieved prominence or distinction in their field and demonstrated a strong commitment to the APA community or civic affairs.
Cathy also regularly speaks and writes about trade secrets issues. She previously served as the Co-Vice Chair of the Trade Secrets Interest Group of the California Lawyers Association's (formerly of the California State Bar) Intellectual Property Section and she writes an annual column about trade secret hot topics in the CLA's "New Matter" publication.
Cathy is very active within the firm and her community. Cathy previously served as the Hiring Partner for the San Francisco office. Orrick selected Cathy to serve as the firm's 2020 Fellow for the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity, and Cathy previously served as the Co-Chair of the Asian American Bar Association's Judiciary Committee, which is focused on increasing representation on the bench.
Cathy also maintains an active pro bono practice. Cathy's dedication to pro bono service was demonstrated by her work in an asylum merits hearing representing a Salvadoran religious activist persecuted by gangs in El Salvador. For her work on this matter, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights honored Cathy with the Father Cuchulain Moriarity Award. In addition, the Justice & Diversity Center of the Bar Association of San Francisco recognized Cathy as an Outstanding Volunteer in Public Service in 2014 through 2020 for her work with helping homeless clients remove outstanding warrants barring them from access to housing and employment.
San Francisco
Todd regularly advises companies and their boards on corporate governance best practices and fiduciary and disclosure duties, and has extensive experience in responding to shareholder litigation demands and other shareholder activism.
Before joining the firm, Todd was an associate at the San Francisco office of Clifford Chance US LLP. In his spare time, Todd is a musician, screenwriter and father to three fantastic kids.