Tom joined Orrick after serving for several years as an investigative attorney in the Office of Unfair Import Investigations at the U.S. International Trade Commission, where he was lead counsel representing the public interest in numerous Section 337 investigations involving allegations of patent infringement, trade dress infringement, and false advertising. During his tenure as an investigative attorney, Tom successfully first-chaired numerous evidentiary hearings and claim construction hearings, and he also was responsible for briefing all procedural and merits issues before the administrative law judges and the Commission.
Before his government service, Tom was associated with international law firms, where he successfully litigated life sciences patent matters involving large molecule and small molecule therapeutics in patent infringement disputes in district court, inter partes review proceedings before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and patent appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Early in his career, Tom served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Alvin A. Schall of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and to the Honorable Leonard P. Stark, then of the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware.
Tom earned his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was a member of the Virginia Law Review and the Virginia Journal of Law & Technology, and won numerous internal and external writing awards and competitions. Before law school, Tom completed a master’s degree in biotechnology from the Johns Hopkins University and a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and pharmacology from Duke University.
Regularly acting for early through to late-stage companies, as well as leading investors, operating within the technology and media sectors, James' practice primarily focuses on equity financings, secondary transactions, M&A, private equity and general corporate advisory work.
James was previously seconded to a leading global start-up accelerator, venture studio and early-stage investor for six months where he sat as Legal Counsel, advising some of the over 300 portfolio companies and acting on cross-border joint venture and partnership arrangements and transactions with prominent corporate investors.
Passionate about working with innovators and investors, James is motivated to provide commercially pragmatic advice and to deliver innovative solutions to aid the growth and success of his clients within the ecosystem.
In these areas, he has been involved both in domestic and cross-border transactions, advising corporate clients, private equity funds and banks. In the context of private equity transactions, he has acted as legal counsel of the issuers in the listing of their shares in Italian regulated markets. He has developed an extensive knowledge of the aviation area, with specific regard to the purchase, sale and lease of aircraft and the financing of the acquisition of aircraft.
Before joining Orrick, Francesco was employed from 1980 to 1981 as in-house counsel by Italtel S.p.A., an Italian telecommunication company. From 1982 to 1988 he worked as an associate at Studio Legale De Berti & Jacchia, an Italian law firm based in Milan. From 1989 to 1997 he was at first an associate and then a partner at the London office of Carnelutti, an Italian law firm. From 1998 to 2008 he was a partner at Vita Samory, Fabbrini e Associati, an Italian law firm, working at the London office of the firm until 1999 and then at the main office in Milan since 2000.
He has been a lecturer at conferences and has written articles in English legal publications on corporate and banking matters.
He is a trusted advisor to private equity real estate investors, funds and institutional lenders on their complex acquisitions, dispositions, financings and developments of office, multifamily, industrial, mixed-use, hotel and golf course properties.
Jon has a particular focus on complex real estate financings, including the origination of mezzanine debt, A/B tiered structures and loan on loan structures, including bridge loans, full construction loans and TI/LC and CapEx future funding facilities.
Jon serves as a relationship co-lead for one of Orrick’s top real estate clients, Walton Street Capital. He also works closely with leading real estate private equity investors, including Westbrook Partners, Cirrus Real Estate Partners and Hackman Capital Partners.
He also has extensive experience in fund formation, real estate and various types of finance transactions.
Hiroki has a deep understanding of clients’ needs from his secondment experience with a U.S. investment bank in 2005 and a Japanese major trading house from 2012 to 2014.
Prior to joining Orrick, Hiroki worked at O’Melveny’s Tokyo office as a counsel where he mainly worked on cross border M&A.
Damon focuses his practice on state and locally based legislative and regulatory issues. He has experience inside of government, having served as Assistant Counsel to the New York Senate Majority. Subsequent to his time in the Senate, he served as a Vice President for the Parkside Group, a New York lobbying firm. He eventually transitioned to an in-house corporate position as Vice President for State Government Affairs for DIRECTV, with a national purview overseeing all aspects of state and local legislative matters for the company. Immediately prior to joining Orrick, he served as Vice President of Government Affairs and State Advocacy Coordinator at AT&T, maintaining national responsibility for satellite-related issues.
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