People

Amanda Lack Managing Associate

Chicago

Amanda’s practice centers on all types of intellectual property matters including patent, trademark, copyright, and trade secret litigation. Amanda also handles other civil litigation matters including commercial and contract-based disputes.

Amanda clerked for Chief Judge Mary H. Murguia of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and for Judge Arenda Wright Allen of the Eastern District of Virginia. During her tenure on the fast-paced “rocket docket,” Amanda assisted Judge Allen in all aspects of presiding over several jury trials and in managing her weighty civil docket. While clerking on the Ninth Circuit, Amanda was intimately involved in oral argument preparation, case strategy, and opinion drafting for both en banc and three-judge panel proceedings. Both clerkships give Amanda invaluable “behind the scenes” experience and an understanding of persuasive writing and argument techniques as well as the mechanics of judicial decision making. Amanda uses these insights and her ability to quickly identify the tipping point of complex cases to clearly and concisely draft the most compelling argument on behalf of her clients.

Prior to clerking, Amanda was previously an associate at another national law firm, where she handled commercial, appellate, and intellectual property matters. She also served as a PILI Fellow at the National Immigrant Justice Center while studying for the bar examination.

During law school, Amanda served as the Editor in Chief of the Journal of Law and Policy and her student note—(Il)Legal Violence at the Border: A Comparative Analysis of LGBTQ+ Asylum Claims in the United States and Europe—was published in the same. She also earned a Certificate in Public Interest Law and authored the top-ranked Respondent’s brief in the Wiley Rutledge Moot Court Competition.

Amanda is deeply committed to pro bono work. She has successfully represented several asylum seekers from around the world as well as incarcerated individuals alleging civil rights violations.

Brendan LaFountain Senior Associate

Sacramento

Brendan's practice is focused primarily on transactions for municipal issuers, including the State of California and the California Department of Water Resources. Brendan's experience includes advising on a variety of governmental financing structures, including general obligation bonds, revenue and lease revenue bonds, certificates of participation and land-secured bonds. Brendan also focuses on tax-exempt healthcare finance for 501(c)(3) organizations, including both stand-alone hospitals and hospital systems, and serves as issuer’s counsel to the California Statewide Communities Development Authority for its 501(c)(3) conduit financings. Brendan has worked on many of the structures available in public finance, including fixed and variable rate bonds, tax-exempt and taxable bonds, publicly offered and privately placed bonds, master trust indentures, insurance, letters of credit, conversions, reofferings and commercial paper programs.

Frederic Lalance Partner

Paris

Frédéric assists his clients in litigation arising from commercial, industrial and financial disputes, corporate law and insolvency proceedings, both before the French courts and in multi-jurisdictional cases – notably in Africa before the courts of OHADA jurisdictions.

He also assists his clients in international arbitration and alternative dispute resolution proceedings.

Frédéric advises French and foreign groups in investigations by administrative or judicial authorities involving bribery and corruption issues. He has deep experience in internal investigations (national and cross-border), and in the implementation of compliance programs.

Frédéric is serving a three-year term (2025-2027) as a member of the Paris Bar Council. He is consistently ranked as a leading litigator in France by the major legal benchmarking directories. He is the author of several publications on developments in litigation and anti-corruption regulation.

Jose Lamarque Senior Associate

New York

Jose assists technology companies with drafting, reviewing and negotiating of customer, vendor, partner, end-user and other contracts for a variety of products and services, including software, cloud service and software-as-a-service offerings. Jose also advises companies on open source software usage, including the development and implementation of internal open source policies and advising on risk and remediation of the use of potentially problematic software components.

Jose received his JD from Harvard Law School in 2017. Before joining Orrick, Jose was an attorney at Debevoise & Plimpton, working on various of intellectual property, data privacy and security, and transactional matters.

Esther Lander Partner

Washington, D.C.

Esther also regularly advises on diversity and inclusion initiatives, such as pay equity studies, intentional recruiting and lawful affirmative action plans and goals.

In addition to her litigation practice, she counsels clients on all areas of federal, state and local employment law, including executive terminations; severance agreements; workforce reductions; and compliance with federal and state obligations such as the WARN Act and the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act.

She also provides advice regarding the proper validation of employment selection procedures to ensure compliance with Title VII and other applicable employment laws. Esther has specific expertise in testing validation and she routinely reviews validation and adverse impact studies to provide clients with strategic advice regarding the defensibility of selection devices, including algorithmic decision-making tools used to assess applicants and employees.

She previously served as the principal deputy chief of the Employment Litigation Section within the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ.

Jason Lang Partner

Silicon Valley

Mr. Lang has litigated cases before district courts, state courts, and the International Trade Commission. He has an extensive practice in patent office proceedings, including ex parte reexaminations and inter partes reviews. He has been a top-filer in inter partes reviews. Recent matters include work with memories (DRAM, Flash and hard drives), semiconductor tools, semiconductor packaging, and design software.

His counseling work includes developing defensive and offensive intellectual property strategies in view of potential competitor litigation. He also assists clients in indemnity disputes, product launches, patent acquisition, licensing and portfolio management.

Before focusing on intellectual property litigation and counseling, Mr. Lang spent a year working for the District Attorney’s Office in Atlanta, Georgia, where he had considerable exposure to numerous trials.

Mr. Lang’s public service commitments include steady work for housing clinics. Mr. Lang recently first-chaired a four-day trial, led a successful mediation, and obtained a favorable settlement for clients of different local clinics.

Jon Langlois Partner

Washington, D.C.

He represents banks, nonbanks, fintechs, private equity and other financial services companies in a variety of corporate and transactional matters, particularly those involving residential mortgage and consumer loans, mortgage servicing rights, and servicing and subservicing relationships. He combines practical strategic advice with a deep knowledge of consumer lending and servicing to provide efficient, successful results.

In addition to his transaction practice, Jon assists clients on a wide range of regulatory issues, including compliance with key consumer financial laws, such as the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts and practices (UDAAP), and other consumer protection issues.

Prior to joining Orrick, Jon was a partner at Buckley LLP. While in law school, he was a Legislative Analyst with Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, and a Government Affairs Representative with the American Financial Services Association.