Michelle’s dedication to these cutting-edge areas of the law and technology over the past 20 years has earned her recognition from Chambers for Privacy & Data Security Litigation and as an up-and-coming lawyer in Privacy & Data generally – where she is described as “equally capable in both compliance and enforcement elements of privacy regulation.”
As a litigator, Michelle is adept at developing novel legal arguments to protect clients in a world where innovation is outpacing regulation. She brings deep experience representing companies in regulatory investigations, data breach and privacy litigation involving the increasing web of statutes that pose statutory damages exposure to companies, such as the Illinois Biometric Privacy Act (BIPA), the California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA), and the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA), and other complex commercial claims. As a crisis manager, she also represents companies in incident response and enjoys working with diverse groups of stakeholders to mitigate business and reputational risks and achieve positive outcomes.
Michelle resides in California with her three children.
Melissa's practice focuses on privacy, online safety, content moderation, and cybersecurity, along with a wide array of commercial disputes. She has defended and advised one of the largest technology companies in the world for multiple years against claims challenging aspects of its online services, including product design and content moderation decisions. Her teams help their clients develop creative and effective legal strategies, not only to defend against specific lawsuits, but also to prepare for future legal risk.
Melissa has also advised multiple clients responding to government investigations, including by the FTC.
Additionally, Melissa maintains an advisory practice, working with her teams to provide recommendations and risk analyses to various clients on their online terms and policies, content moderation practices, online safety, and issues related to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
Melissa also maintains a pro bono practice. Among other matters, Melissa is currently representing multiple members of a Honduran family seeking various forms of immigration relief.
Reese's practice spans both criminal and civil litigation in the white collar, securities, and complex business litigation fields. He represents and advises a diverse range of clients, including individual executives navigating criminal liability and employment disputes, as well as publicly traded corporations responding to an array of civil claims.
As a law student, Reese worked as an intern at the San Francisco City Attorney's Office in the Litigation Division as well as working as an extern with Legal Services of Northern California.
Kyle advises companies throughout their lifecycle, including formation, corporate and securities law, venture capital financings and corporate governance matters. In addition to advising companies, Kyle represents venture firms and other investors in connection with their investments in private companies.
Before practicing law, Kyle was a product manager in a leading medical device company. He also worked on multiple units of a nationally recognized children's hospital and sat on the Hospital Ethics Committee.
Erin's practice covers all aspects of employment law. She defends employers in class actions and other complex cases, as well as in systemic investigations and audits by the EEOC, DOJ, and the California CRD. Erin has led dozens of internal pay equity analyses and is a trusted advisor for several of the nation's most prominent employers on developing areas of employment law, including pay equity and pay transparency, DEI best practices, and the use of AI in employment decision making.
Erin also is an accomplished first chair trial lawyer. She has tried several cases before juries and in arbitration, and has obtained numerous defense summary judgment rulings and other favorable resolutions in state and federal court. Erin led the trial team that obtained a complete dismissal for Oracle in OFCCP v. Oracle, the largest pay equity case ever brought by the US Department of Labor, which garnered national media attention and earned Erin recognition as a "Litigator of the Week" by the American Lawyer and a 2021 Employment MVP by Law360. As lead counsel, Erin also successfully obtained decertification in a statewide California pay equity class action, Jewett v. Oracle.
Erin's clients include leading technology and Fortune 500 companies, including: Oracle, Meta, Microsoft, Netflix, Pinterest, Workday, PayPal, Sony Interactive Entertainment, NVIDIA, Airbnb, SiriusXM, Dropbox, Zendesk, Splunk and Goldman Sachs.
Erin frequently speaks on California and national employment law issues. She is currently a Council Member with the American Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Law Section (LEL) and is the Conference Chair for the American Employment Legal Council (AELC). She is also a faculty member with the Institute for Workplace Equality (IWE), and formerly served as the management chair of the ABA Equal Employment Opportunity Committee. Erin also previously served on the Board of Directors for the Bar Association of San Francisco (BASF), as well as BASF’s Justice & Diversity Center (JDC). She has published numerous articles and papers on employment law issues in publications around the country. She also provides employment law training and conducts internal investigations on employment-related matters.
Eric helps clients design and build successful renewable energy businesses by advising on how projects and portfolios large and small can maximize their value through well-informed negotiation, efficient diligence and acquisition techniques, and responsive and creative problem solving.
Eric has particularly deep knowledge in helping developers strategically procure the equipment and services necessary to develop, construct, commission, operate and sell renewable energy projects of all sizes, and in helping investors evaluate the development work of potential investments. Development and procurement managers excel at sourcing and pricing a project’s needs, and Eric can build on this by bringing these contracts to completion with deep market knowledge, in a way best suited to the client’s commercial objectives and so that they withstand the scrutiny of project investors, lenders and buyers. Eric balances work for utility-scale projects with the growing distributed energy generation and storage sector, both of which recently include negotiation of contracts to “safe harbor” equipment or construction activities to preserve higher levels of ITC or PTC. He has represented energy project developers, equipment suppliers and installers, publicly-owned utilities, private equity investors and other parties in developing energy projects from very early stages of securing technology and land/resource rights to buying and selling operating assets, and everything in between.
In addition to representing clients in state and federal courts nationwide and in arbitration, Ariel also counsels public and private companies and their directors and officers on a wide range of issues relating to corporate governance and litigation risk and strategy. On the regulatory side, Ariel represents institutions and individuals in connection with investigations by the DOJ, SEC, FINRA, and other state and federal agencies. She also has defended clients in several high-profile SEC and DOJ enforcement actions.
Ariel additionally maintains an active pro bono practice focused on immigration and civil rights matters.
Please do not include any confidential, secret or otherwise sensitive information concerning any potential or actual legal matter in this e-mail message. Unsolicited e-mails do not create an attorney-client relationship and confidential or secret information included in such e-mails cannot be protected from disclosure. Orrick does not have a duty or a legal obligation to keep confidential any information that you provide to us. Also, please note that our attorneys do not seek to practice law in any jurisdiction in which they are not properly authorized to do so.
By clicking "OK" below, you understand and agree that Orrick will have no duty to keep confidential any information you provide.