People

Michael C. Chow Partner

Orange County

Michael has worked on matters for companies including Canon Inc., Ricoh, Panasonic, eBay, eBay Enterprise, Foxconn, Robert Bosch, Realtek, Anker, Fujitsu Limited, and NVIDIA Corporation covering technologies such as eCommerce, Bluetooth, automotive technology, optical networking and telecommunication, graphics processing, and signal equalization.

Prior to law school, Michael was a mechanical engineer with M-E Engineers, Inc., in Culver City, Calif., where he designed the HVAC systems, including sizing equipment and devising airflows, for hospitals, sporting venues, and office buildings. His projects included Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital in Whittier, Calif., and Citizens Bank Arena in Ontario, Calif.

Mark Christy Partner

Chicago

Mark has nearly 15 years of experience in project finance. His clients include major financial institutions (tax equity investors and infrastructure funds), lenders, developers, and sponsors, particularly those active in the renewable energy sector. He regularly advises clients on opportunities stemming from the Inflation Reduction Act, specifically Section 6417 direct pay opportunities and Section 6418 tax credit transfers.

Mark also advises clients in a wide variety of structured finance, including transactions relating to CLOs, warehouse/leverage facilities, and other securitization structures, real estate mortgage investment conduits (REMICs), commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS), and real estate investment trusts (REITs).

Benjamin Cichostepski-Lesage Partner

Paris; Paris Tech Studio

Ben is the founding partner of Orrick's French Tech Companies Group. For more than 15 years, he has been advising high-potential innovative companies as well as venture and tech growth investors on all their corporate private equity and M&A transactions in France and globally.

As such, he is involved in every stage of their development, from incubation and fundraising to external growth and industrial exits as well as public offerings (IPO, secondary).

Ben has significant experience advising French companies expanding into the United States, and assists them over the full lifecycle of their overseas growth. He also counts a number of American investors and buyers among his clients.

From his first venture deal in 2006, where he represented Lightspeed Venture Partners in Wikio’s Series A, which became Teads, a company he then accompanied for 11 years until its sale to Altice, Ben has led more than 330 corporate tech transactions. He has been involved in the main exit transactions in recent years, particularly those with a franco-american element such as Neolane/Adobe, La Fourchette/TripAdvisor, Stupeflix/GoPro, eNovance/Red Hat, Regaind/Apple, Zenly/Snap, Teads/Altice, Getaround/Drivy, Glose/Medium, Sqreen/Datadog, Lalilo/Renaissance Learning, Tempow/Google, Context/Integral Ad Science, Monk/ACV Auctions, Cajoo/Flink, Shipfix/Veson Nautical, Bereal/Voodoo.

Ben's leadership has contributed to placing Orrick as the #1 Venture Capital and Tech Growth practice in France (ranked #1 by Pitchbook in 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021 - CF News in 2024, 2023, 2022). 

Recognized as a key lawyer in the market in venture capital and tech growth, Ben was ranked No. 1 in the "Top 10 Influential French Venture Capital Lawyers in Private Equity 2023" by Business Today. He was named "Lawyer of the Year" in the 2023 edition of Best Lawyers France in the Venture Capital category. He is also ranked as a Leading Individual by The Legal 500 EMEA in Private Equity - Venture Capital/Growth Capital since 2020 and was voted as the most active tech lawyer in France in 2019 by transaction volume in CF News’ ranking.

Ben is the founder of Orrick Paris Tech Studio, a one of a kind office and working space created in June 2022 and located in the heart of the Paris Tech scene, which is the headquarters of Orrick's French Tech practice.

Claudia Francesca Micol Cirina Associate

Milan

She advises startups, investors, and corporate clients on venture capital financings, mergers and acquisitions, and general corporate matters. Based in Milan, Claudia works across a variety of industries, with a strong focus on the tech, life sciences, and a particular passion about fintech. Her practice includes advising on both domestic and cross-border transactions, supporting clients throughout the full investment cycle.

Claudia has worked on a broad range of deals, including early-stage financings in sectors such as AI, healthtech, and SaaS, as well as growth capital rounds for companies developing advanced digital and industrial technologies. She has also been involved in strategic acquisitions and exits, including transactions in the energy, cybersecurity, and enterprise software fields.

Valerie Clark Counsel

New York

Valerie's practice has a focus on warehouse lending, secured credit facilities, and publicly registered and privately placed asset securitization transactions. Her experience extends to various asset classes, encompassing marketplace consumer loans, solar loans, residential mortgages, single family rental assets, student loans, small business loans, credit card receivables, auto loans, and aircraft loans and leases.

Before joining Orrick, Valerie was counsel in Chapman and Cutler LLP's Asset Securitization Department. She began her career at Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP as a corporate associate.

Damon Clark Project Attorney

Wheeling, W.V. (GOIC)

Mr. Clark works with litigation attorneys and third party vendors to manage the review and production of documents relevant to investigations and litigation. This work includes using early case assessment technology to analyze, categorize and cull data. He also manages teams of skilled professionals performing document review, redaction, analysis, production and drafting privilege logs. Damon assists the litigation team to prepare for trial, including drafting deposition summaries, factual memoranda and exhibit charts. He also works with practice office attorneys on transactional tasks, including contract review and due diligence.