People

Giji John Partner

Houston; Singapore

He has extensive experience representing project sponsors through development (including through the negotiation and drafting of power purchase agreements and other long-term offtake agreements, physical and financial swaps, engineering, procurement and construction contracts, operation and maintenance agreements, management services agreements and site services agreements), acquisitions and dispositions, joint ventures and financings. His representation has included transactions involving LNG facilities, methanol facilities, petrochemical refineries, carbon capture and sequestration facilities, natural gas processing and storage facilities, natural gas and CO2 pipelines, wind energy, solar energy, natural gas-fired peaking and combined-cycle power plants, thermal and battery energy storage, transportation, aviation and ports.

His prior experiences include a two year secondment to International Finance Corporation’s Office of General Counsel where he worked on multi-currency corporate financings, project financings and equity investments in infrastructure projects in Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, India, Mexico, Pakistan, Panama, the Philippines, Romania, Russia, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan and Turkey.

Giji is currently ranked as a Projects Leading Lawyer in Chambers Global and Chambers USA, and has been recognized for excellence by numerous leading industry and legal publications, including being named one of 34 "Groundbreaking lawyers" by Public Utilities Fortnightly.

Pamela Johnson Chief Inventory Management Officer

San Francisco

Previously, Pamela was the Chief Practice Officer for Orrick’s global Litigation and IP Business Units, comprised of over 400 lawyers.

She advised on the strategic planning, operation and management of the Business Units. Her responsibilities included oversight of the financial performance, business planning and execution, and lawyer recruiting. Pamela also oversaw the managing attorney's office, which includes the firm-wide court and calendaring functions.

Pamela brings to her position many years of experience in various law firm roles. She was formerly a commercial real estate lawyer at Steefel, Levitt and Weiss (now Manatt, Phelps & Phillips) and at Orrick. Her practice focused on the representation of institutional investors in the acquisition, disposition and financing of commercial and multifamily properties. Pamela has also served as Director of Business Development for various transactional and litigation practice groups at Orrick.

Mark Johnson Of Counsel

London

Mark assists office holders across a broad range of asset recovery actions, including investigations into antecedent transactions and other claims against directors and third parties, as well as advising directors defending such claims. Mark has deep experience in enforcement work on behalf of banks and lenders including Law of Property Act receiverships.

Mark's non-contentious work includes significant experience on transactional matters such as assisting on both the buy and sell side of 'pre-pack' administration sales and other insolvency sales, advising on restructuring options for companies in distress including voluntary arrangements, schemes, and consensual restructuring proposals as well as advisory work assisting companies and their directors on the duties they have when facing financial difficulties.

Thora Johnson Partner

Washington, D.C.

Thora works with medical device, pharmaceutical, biotech and digital health companies, helping them navigate the increasingly complex patchwork of state and federal health privacy laws. One client described her to the Legal 500 as a “very practical” advisor providing “exceptional guidance” on health information privacy and HIPAA compliance matters.

Her breadth and depth of experience enable Thora to assist clients in harnessing the power of artificial intelligence and executing data-sharing arrangements, all while protecting health data. As a result, Thora spends much of her time counseling pioneering startups and high-growth companies on responsible innovation in healthcare and life sciences.

Thora brings extensive experience counseling clients, including Fortune 500 companies and brick and mortar providers, on the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and other state and federal health privacy and regulatory compliance regimes including:

• Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s interoperability and information blocking regulations
• Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service’s (CMS’s) interoperability and patient access regulations
• Part 2 confidentiality requirements applicable to substance abuse records
• State health information privacy laws
• State consumer privacy laws with special controls for health data
• Medicare/Medicaid compliance
• Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA)
• Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA)
• Affordable Care Act (ACA) compliance
• Regulatory requirements of the Employer Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), the Internal Revenue Code, HIPAA, and the ACA as they apply to employer health and wellness plans

Thora routinely helps companies and large employers prepare for and respond to privacy and security incidents involving health information. She also defends clients in government investigations initiated by the OCR, OIG, DOJ, FTC and State AGs, among others.

Karen G. Johnson-McKewan Senior Counsel

San Francisco

Karen focuses on litigation that crosses the boundaries between traditional legal practices, and therefore requires inventive and strategic approaches. These solutions, tucked in the creases between law and industry, are why leading technology and Fortune 500 companies hire Karen to resolve their most complex litigation matters.

Over the past 36 years, Karen has first-chaired state and federal trials, and arbitrated more than a dozen disputes. She has managed intellectual property and commercial disputes for companies such as Oracle, NVIDIA, Netflix and VMWare.

In addition to her legal background, Karen’s relationship management skills give her clients a significant advantage. She knows how to pull together and lead the best team, from multiple disciplines within Orrick, and often involving multiple law firms. Able to unite what were, and will be, competing firms into a single powerful unit takes a special type of leadership, one which Karen has demonstrated time and again.

Mariah T. Johnston Of Counsel

New York

She focuses her practice on the development of energy infrastructure, including liquefied natural gas terminals, natural gas pipelines and natural gas storage facilities, as well as related transactional and financing matters. She routinely advises companies on securing permits and authorizations for major energy projects and has significant experience with proceedings before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, and the U.S. Maritime Administration.