People

Jill Winter Senior Associate

Washington, D.C.

Jill maintains an active pro bono practice that includes assisting inmates with post-conviction relief. She has also co-authored U.S. Supreme Court amicus briefs in support of a criminal defendant at both the certiorari and merits stages.

Prior to joining Orrick, Jill was an associate at Buckley LLP. She previously clerked for the Honorable Harvey Bartle, III in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Christopher Witeck Partner

Washington, D.C.

Chris has an active practice representing financial services entities in negotiating a wide variety of corporate transactions, including company M&A, asset purchases and critical vendor and other third-party relationships. His clients include banks, mortgage companies and servicers, marketplace and other lenders, fintech and emerging payments providers and other business entities in the financial services industry.

Chris’ M&A work emphasizes transactions that involve regulatory risks and concerns or novel structures at the forefront of industry trends. He also represents buyers and sellers of mortgage loans and other consumer lending assets, including interests such as mortgage servicing rights. He regularly negotiates many varieties of servicing and subservicing contracts.

He also advises clients on outsourcing, joint venture and bank partner agreements, particularly in the fintech and e-commerce arena, providing years of experience addressing “true lender” issues. He also advises clients on loan repurchase and indemnity matters as well as corporate governance and compliance matters.

His regulatory practice focuses on advising lenders and servicers on matters involving the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), including affiliated business arrangements, portfolio retention transactions and vendor management issues.

Chris is recognized by Chambers USA for Fintech: Payments & Lending, which cited his capabilities “advising on regulatory compliance, commercial contracts matters and transactional work, with notable expertise handling M&A in the financial services sector.”

He was previously Co-Managing Partner and a member of the partner board at Buckley LLP. Before attending law school, he worked at the U.S. Department of State.

Alexander Witt Senior Associate

London

Alexander has particular experience in investment claims arising out of regulatory changes to renewable energy incentive regimes and the enactment of environmental protection laws. He has represented investors, Latin American and Eastern European States in a variety of claims under domestic and international law, including high-profile and politically sensitive investment treaty cases (often involving issues of corruption).

In addition to his international arbitration experience, Alexander frequently advises clients on financial sanctions and export control issues across a range of sectors including oil & gas, infrastructure, and defence.

He is fluent in Spanish and has a good command of German. Alexander also speaks and writes on international arbitration related subjects.

George Wolf Senior Counsel

San Francisco

George is also a long-time member of the Public Finance Tax Group, specializing in public power and health care, and is the leading national authority on municipal derivative products. He is principal tax advisor to several major municipal electric utilities and nonprofit healthcare organizations. He also has extensive experience in working with leading banks in creating new financial products, including secondary market synthetic instruments, contingent payment debt instruments, financing strategies for energy, as well as defending the taxation of financial transactions before taxing authorities.

George also has substantial experience defending the tax integrity of financing arrangements in particular as well as tax litigation in general.

Sarah Wolf Career Associate

Washington, D.C.

Prior to joining Orrick, Sarah was an appellate attorney with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs where she represented the VA before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.

A veteran herself, Sarah served over 13 years on active duty as a Judge Advocate in the U.S. Army, including two deployments to Iraq. During her military career, Sarah prosecuted criminal cases, represented soldiers in criminal appeals, advised senior commanders on complex investigations and operational law, and taught as an associate professor at the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s School in Charlottesville, Virginia.

John Wolfe Partner

Seattle

John is consistently recognized in The Best Lawyers in America and recommended by The Legal 500 United States as a white collar criminal defense lawyer. John relies upon a multi-disciplinary crisis management strategy to assist clients and address both legal and reputational risks.

John has extensive experience representing clients in federal and state criminal and civil investigations, including state attorney general investigations, related to alleged health care fraud and standards of care violations resulting in death, consumer protection violations, public corruption and campaign finance violations, environmental violations (both land-based and maritime), including catastrophic industrial accident response and investigations, cybersecurity investigations and securities and tax fraud, including money laundering. John is an accomplished and seasoned trial lawyer who has represented public and private clients in more than 100 jury trials, and appeared in state and federal proceedings throughout the Pacific Northwest, as well as California, Florida, Montana, New York, and Wyoming.

Honors:

In 2004, John chaired the Magistrate Selection Committee for the Federal District Court in the Western District of Washington. He has also served on several Merit Selection panels identifying candidates for appointment to the federal bench in the Western District of Washington. He is currently co-chair of the Federal Appointments Committee for the Federal Bar Association and has served as a Ninth Circuit Representative. He was once appointed to serve as a Special Master in a matter pending before the Federal District Court in the Western District of Washington to investigate issues related to a multi-party joint defense agreement.