People

Robert Allsbrook Of Counsel

New York

Colby has deep experience in financial services, asset-backed security and mortgage-related litigation, and has been at the forefront of litigation arising out of the financial crisis.

Prior to joining Orrick, he was a Director and senior litigation counsel at Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, where he chaired the firm's Mortgage Securities Litigation Task Force and helped direct the bank's litigation response to the mortgage crisis. He previously practiced law in the New York offices of King & Spalding and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft.

Margaret Anderson Senior Associate

New York

Margaret represents companies and individuals in high-stakes litigation in federal and state courts nationwide. She has extensive experience in all stages of litigation, from pre-suit demands through the conclusion of the appellate process.

John Ansbro Partner

New York

John litigates a wide range of commercial disputes, including financial services litigations involving RMBS, disputes in the wind and solar power industries across a host of contractual issues, construction disputes, long-term take-or-pay and liquidated damages disputes, force majeure, bankruptcy litigation, insurance recovery, and commercial real estate foreclosure. He was also an arbitrator on an ICC International Court of Arbitration panel in a cross-border industrial contract dispute.

COVID-19’s unprecedented global market impact has clients across an array of industries seeking John’s counsel on force majeure and related breach of contract disputes. These include force majeure matters across jurisdictions and industries, including Energy & Infrastructure, Pharmaceuticals, Financial Services, Real Estate, Hospitality, and Retail.

John litigates significant, high stakes matters. For example, in 2017 on behalf of his client Hemlock Semiconductor Corp., in a case of first impression in Michigan, on appeal John won the dismissal of an attempt by a Japanese conglomerate to avoid $1.4 billion in purchase obligations on the theory that alleged acts by the Chinese Government constituted an “act of government” under the parties’ force majeure provision. The Michigan Bar Journal declared it one of the top 10 business cases of 2010-2019. In 2019, one of the very few RMBS actions to be tried, John was trial counsel for Credit Suisse Securities USA in a $700 million dispute in the Supreme Court of New York. At trial he handled the defense expert in the critical area of loan underwriting.

Prior to joining Orrick, John was a Litigation Associate at Donovan Leisure Newton & Irvine LLP.

Gregory Beaman Partner

New York

Lauren Bernstein Counsel

New York

Lauren’s practice spans the full spectrum of dispute resolution, from pre-litigation counseling and strategy development to trial and appeal in high-profile antitrust and complex commercial litigation matters. She has worked with clients to evaluate and navigate potential disputes and assess opportunities to settle or negotiate a resolution ahead of litigation. Additionally, she helps clients develop robust dispute resolution strategies at the transactional stage, advising on dispute resolution clauses and positioning clients for favorable outcomes in potential future disputes.

Lauren has extensive experience representing clients in the life sciences industry in disputes arising from drug development, licensing, and joint ventures, and has defended clients in multi-billion dollar arbitrations and antitrust litigation, including multidistrict proceedings.

Lauren is dedicated to giving back to her community through her pro bono practice. She has been instrumental in providing legal advice and support to pro bono clients related to reproductive rights, including securing a preliminary injunction in North Dakota blocking the state’s ban on abortion, which was affirmed unanimously by the North Dakota Supreme Court. She also is an active member of her local synagogue in New York, including by serving on the membership committee.

Peter Bicks Partner

New York

In recognition of Peter’s career trial work, he was inducted into the American College of Trial Lawyers in 2015. Juries have compared him favorably to Johnnie Cochran and F. Lee Bailey. Clients laud Peter, telling Chambers USA 2020-2022, “He’s a standout trial lawyer and an outstanding advocate overall. He appreciates the client’s needs and advocates for them everywhere.” Another client notes, “He is brilliant in the courtroom under the most intense pressure,” “a master of seeing the full chessboard.” That praise is echoed by sources saying, Peter is “one of these lawyers that really turns big cases; he’s a real trial lawyer,” and calling him “one of the most gifted trial lawyers that I have ever seen.” Clients go on to applaud his trial experience and strategic approach saying, “Peter really knows his way round a courtroom. He's a great trial tactician.” “He is an outstanding advocate who appreciates the client's needs and reputational questions involved.” A peer in the trial bar told Law360, “What is most impressive is his ability as a true Field General – calmly directing his team’s efforts.”

With precedent-setting trial wins in intellectual property, commercial and products liability litigation, Peter has amassed honors from annual top rankings in Chambers USA, Legal 500, and Benchmark Litigation, to awards for excellence, such as New York “Litigation Star,” “Law360 MVP,” “Litigator of the Week,” and “Top 100 Trial Lawyers in America.”

It is Peter’s versatility that sets him apart. He brings a combination of deft courtroom skills, strategic acuity and team leadership. In July 2023, a leading company in the biotech agricultural space, Corteva Agriscience, retained Peter as lead trial counsel in a high profile intellectual property lawsuit Corteva filed against Inari Agriculture, Inc. and Inari Agriculture NV to protect its highly valuable patent protected genetically modified seeds. As noted in the complaint, the lawsuit "…seeks to prevent Inari from continuing its brazen efforts to steal Corteva's groundbreaking work." Specifically, the lawsuit alleges that Inari deliberately used a third-party agent to obtain protected Corteva seeds, illegally exported the seeds out of the United States, made slight genetic modifications of the biotech traits and is seeking U.S. patents for those modified traits. The case is pending in the U.S. District Court, Delaware and is in discovery. In May 2022, when faced with a headlining trial over control of the leading international model and talent company, Elite Worldwide Group, the company and its Chairman tapped Peter as lead trial counsel to parachute in just 45 days before trial. Our complete trial win for the client earned Peter and the team Litigators of the Week Runner-Up honors from the American Lawyer. Louis Dreyfus Company turned to Peter recently as lead trial counsel once they saw that a massive, high stakes trial was on the horizon with over $1 billion at stake amid class action claims alleging manipulation of the cotton futures market. DISH Network brought Peter in shortly before trial when the FTC and various state attorneys general sought $700 billion in damages and penalties for alleged telemarketing violations. He achieved an astounding trial victory for DISH limiting recovery to less than one percent of the exposure. For Johnson & Johnson, Peter has been part of a small group of market-leading outside counsel overseeing the defense of more than 15,000 talc-related cases, including product liability trials, consumer class actions, and cases brought under California’s Prop 65; handling multiple trials, SEC, DOJ, and AG investigations; and representing senior executives in major depositions, at trial, and before Congress.

Peter served as co-head of the firm's Global Litigation practice and is a former member of Orrick’s Board and Management Committee. Before joining Orrick, Peter was a partner at Donovan Leisure. He captained his college tennis team to a national ranking, has successfully competed in major national sailboat competitions, and serves on the Board of the Harlem Junior Tennis and Education Program. With his wife Linda, he has three children: Avery, Isabelle and Phoebe.

Richard Bierschbach Associated Law Professor

New York

Richard has substantial experience advising clients across a wide range of cases, with particular focus on matters involving novel or complex constitutional, statutory, administrative, or other public-law issues, appeals, and legal and strategic counseling. A former law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and to Judge A. Raymond Randolph on the D.C. Circuit, Richard served both as a Bristow Fellow in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of the Solicitor General and as an Attorney-Adviser in its Office of Legal Counsel. During that time, he regularly counseled federal government attorneys on appellate and legal strategy issues and provided written and oral advice to the White House, the Attorney General and other executive branch offices on a broad spectrum of constitutional, statutory, and regulatory questions. He also practiced as an appellate litigator in the New York office of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering from 2001-03 and, more recently, as of counsel in the New York office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Before his appointment as Dean, he was a tenured professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where he was Vice Dean from 2015-16.

Richard teaches and writes in the areas of administrative law, criminal justice, and corporations. His published work has appeared in the Yale Law Journal, the Michigan Law Review, the Virginia Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the Northwestern University Law Review, the Georgetown Law Journal, and the University of Minnesota Law Review, among other journals. He twice—in 2013 and 2015—received the Best Professor Award from Cardozo’s graduating class. He has been quoted on legal developments by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, ABC News, Slate, and other media.