People

Serena Tibrewala Managing Associate

New York

Serena also represents investors and venture capital firms on their investments in early and high-growth technology companies.

Keith A. Tidwell Of Counsel

San Francisco

His practice focuses on the representation of both public and private companies in connection with employee benefits and compensation-related aspects of corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, spin-offs, and initial public offerings.

Keith also advises on the design, administration and implementation of executive compensation and equity compensation arrangements, including severance arrangements and executive employment agreements.

Prior to joining Orrick, Keith was an attorney-advisor to the Honorable Joseph R. Goeke on the United States Tax Court in Washington, D.C.

Erin Carter Tison Senior Discovery Attorney

Wheeling, W.V. (GOIC)

Erin has experience with all aspects of litigation, from filing the complaint up to serving as trial counsel, and everything in between. Erin has first-chaired 5 federal trials to verdict, and participated in an additional 10 federal and state trials in an advisory, strategic, or supporting role. In addition to trial work, she has substantial experience taking and defending both fact and expert depositions, drafting and arguing complex dispositive briefing, managing the preservation, collection, analysis, and production of paper and electronic documents, conducting custodian and witness interviews, and briefing complex and technical discovery and privilege issues.

Erin is part of a national counsel team for a luxury consumer goods company, defending cases pending across the country, including some of the most plaintiff-friendly jurisdictions. Erin serves as regional counsel, where she shares responsibility in developing and coordinating trial defense strategy on a daily basis. She collaborates with local, regional, and national counsel throughout the country to develop strategic decisions in all phases of litigation.    

In addition to this role, Erin’s practice has been focused on responding to government regulatory, civil, and criminal investigations, as well as government litigation. Erin advises clients on strategy for responding to government subpoenas and information requests, and provides strategic guidance on complex legal and privilege issues. Her practice also involves conducting internal investigations of companies around the world, including interviewing corporate executives and employees, defending those same witnesses in front of federal agencies, and analyzing complex documents, data, and other information. Erin also advises clients on strategy in general commercial litigation matters relating to complex discovery issues and beyond.

Also while at Orrick, Erin served an extended secondment with The Dow Chemical Company as a Case Manager in Dow's Asbestos, Products Liability & Insurance Litigation Group. In this capacity, she managed the asbestos and premises litigation dockets for Union Carbide and Dow throughout the western and northeastern United States. This involved overseeing hundreds of ongoing product liability cases, including advising the litigation management team on case evaluation, resolution, and business strategies, as well as directing outside counsel and trial counsel teams.

Immediately prior to joining Orrick, Erin served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia in Wheeling, WV. At the United States Attorney's Office, Erin focused on both defensive and affirmative civil matters on behalf of the United States, its agencies, and employees. In this role, Erin practiced in a variety of areas of the law, including but not limited to, constitutional claims, torts, statutory and administrative claims, environmental matters, tax and bankruptcy matters, and fraud investigations and litigation. While at the United States Attorney's Office, Erin served as the e-discovery office coordinator for the District, and was the chair of the diversity committee. Prior to her government service, Erin was a member of the Trial Practice group at Duane Morris LLP, where she focused on commercial litigation and corporate internal investigations.

Ramin Tohidi Partner

Silicon Valley

Ramin helps clients maximize their intellectual property and technology portfolios in a variety of ways, including drafting, negotiating, and advising on development, production, supply, procurement, and other technology licensing arrangements. He represents both mature and emerging companies in a variety of industries, including in SaaS, software, AI, hardware, information technology, business process outsourcing, enterprise resource planning, and data intelligence.

Ramin also counsels companies in developing artificial intelligence (AI) policies and deploying AI tools, and he also advises clients on open-source licensing and intellectual property issues in connection with mergers, acquisitions, and financing transactions.

According to Chambers USA, Ramin is “an excellent, practical, client- and business-oriented tech transactions attorney”, and “someone clients can work with as a tech expert, a business confidant and, of course, a legal expert." Chambers USA ranked him as an Up and Coming Partner, and Legal 500 ranks him as a Rising Star in 2021 and 2022 for Technology: Transactions.

Paul A. Toland Of Counsel

San Francisco

Paul's practice includes bond and issuer counsel work for tax-exempt and taxable financings, with a focus on revenue bonds, particularly multifamily housing revenue bonds issued by cities, counties, public authorities and joint powers agencies. 

Paul also serves as special counsel for the California Statewide Communities Development Authority for its conduit housing financings. 

Lisa Tonery Partner

New York

At the forefront of her field, Lisa helped a client obtain the first authorization from the DOE to export domestic natural gas as LNG to all trading partners, and represented the first bi-directional LNG terminals proposed in the United States in proceedings before FERC.

Lisa has been recognized both nationally and globally as a leading practitioner by Chambers Global, Chambers USA, and The Legal 500 for more than a decade.

“Lisa Tonery comes highly recommended for her considerable expertise in representing major clients in high-value LNG proceedings . . . Sources say: ‘She's an expert . . . she really understands the critical issues.’” (Chambers Global)

"Client-focused, business-minded and dogged in the pursuit of her clients' interests. Her depth of knowledge is best-in-class. She has extensive relationships with FERC at all levels and is very pleasant to work with." (Chambers USA)

Kjell Tönjes Associate

Düsseldorf

He advises start-ups and scale-ups from inception through early-stage financing rounds and in their growth phases, as well as on internationalization projects. In addition, he advises institutional and corporate investors on venture capital investments.

Kjell also advises on national and international M&A and private equity transactions with a focus on technology.

Prior to joining Orrick, he had been a lawyer with one of the big 4 firms in Düsseldorf, where he focused on venture capital. During his studies, Kjell had been a research associate with a Berlin-based venture capital boutique for several years.