People

Will Davis Managing Associate

Los Angeles

Will’s clients include developers, investors, lenders and contractors engaged in transactions related to energy transition and infrastructure decarbonization projects across the U.S. Their experience includes diverse financing structures such as joint ventures, tax equity and cash equity investments, direct lending and mezzanine debt financing, as well as drafting and negotiating project development, equipment purchase and sale, and power purchase agreements.

Sarah Davis Counsel

San Francisco

Sarah has particular expertise defending challenges to overdraft fees, including challenges to authorize positive, settle negative (“APSN”) transactions, and has represented Capital One, U.S. Bank, First Hawaiian Bank, and Union Bank in putative class actions challenging APSN fees. Separately, Sarah has defended two large national banks in enforcement actions related to overdraft fees and obtained a non-public resolution of voluntary remediation.

Sarah also has a robust practice defending both small and large companies against allegations of food mislabeling. She has successfully defended or reached favorable settlement terms regarding challenges to “all natural,” “no sugar added,” and “non-GMO” claims.

Olivia Davis Associate

Washington, D.C.

Olivia advises clients on a wide range of regulatory and compliance matters.

Prior to joining Orrick, Olivia was a Paralegal and Summer Associate at Buckley LLP. During law school, she was an extern at the Eastern Virginia Legal Aid Society and worked with clients through William & Mary Law School's Immigration Clinic.

Meredith Dawson Partner

New York

Meredith joined the firm as a summer associate in the New York office in 2016. Through years of hands-on experience and collaborative client relationships, she has developed a multifaceted understanding of financing structures in credit and lending. Meredith’s transactional experience includes acquisition and leveraged finance facilities; direct lending transactions; first lien, second lien and first-out/last-out unitranche facilities; recurring revenue loans; and asset-based and other specialty financings across a variety of industries.

Behnam Dayanim Partner

Washington, D.C.

Behn advises gaming and gambling providers, large media companies, Fintech, blockchain and more traditional financial services participants, and other technology and consumer-focused companies on issues at the intersection of gaming, financial services, data privacy and governance and related regulatory areas. Clients turn to him for his ability to advise on the whole frame of issues they may encounter, and he is equally comfortable guiding emerging companies in the early stages of their lifecycles and mature, multinational public companies. Behn is at home in the courtroom – representing clients in cutting-edge gaming litigations, before regulatory bodies – helping the crypto industry address growing sanctions and other financial services obligations, and in the boardroom – assisting in the formation of significant commercial partnerships, brand licenses, acquisitions and other combinations.

Bas de Blank Partner

Silicon Valley

In addition to his ITC practice, Bas also heads Orrick’s contentious prosecution practice. He has led more than 30 IPRs and first-chaired more than a dozen trials before the United States Patent Office, as well as represented clients in dozens of trials in district courts, and before PTAB.

As someone with degrees in both engineering and English literature, Bas is uniquely suited to present complicated topics to non-technical audiences. He has represented clients in fields as diverse as semiconductor processing and structure, GPS and geosynchronous satellites, image texture and graphics processing, Internet switches and communications, and various consumer products.

Esteban De La Torre Managing Associate

San Francisco

Esteban represents clients at all stages of their life cycles and in a variety of technology and life sciences-driven industries. Esteban has experience drafting commercial, licensing and other intellectual property and technology agreements. He also assists clients with intellectual property issues in connection with a range of large commercial and strategic transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, licenses and collaborations, and strategic investments.

Before joining Orrick, Esteban was an attorney in the IP Transactions group at Ropes & Gray, working on a variety of intellectual property and transactional matters.

Christopher De Los Reyes Senior Associate

New York

Chris focuses in a variety of cross-border employment matters, including corporate immigration and workforce mobility strategies for multinational organizations. From startup ventures to large Fortune 500 companies and international conglomerates, he has represented clients across a diverse range of industries, including technology, banking and financial services, energy, manufacturing, retail and e-commerce, insurance, logistics and transportation, and academic institutions, among others. 

As a member of Orrick's Global Employment Team, Chris focuses on international comparative employment law and assists clients on matters such as compliance, HR policies, global offer letters/employment contracts, separation agreements, etc. 

Having practiced U.S. immigration and nationality law for many years prior to joining the Firm, Chris bolsters Orrick's capabilities and subject matter experience in the ever-changing corporate immigration space. To this end, he routinely advises HR and management teams on I-9 compliance, procurement of work authorization for foreign national talent, and the immigration-related impact of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and other types of corporate restructuring. Chris has successfully assisted companies with obtaining nonimmigrant visas for H-1B Specialty Occupation Professionals, L-1 Intracompany Transferees, E-1/E-2 Treaty Traders and Investors, TN NAFTA professionals, F-1 Students, J-1 Exchange Visitors, B-1/B-2 Temporary Visitors, and O-1 Extraordinary Ability Individuals. He also has extensive experience with the PERM labor certification process, immigrant visas, legal permanent residency (green card) applications, and naturalization/citizenship applications. 

Kathryn 'Katy' de Visscher Senior Associate

Boston

Katy guides clients through every stage of cybersecurity incident response, including leading investigations, advising clients on data breach notification responsibilities, defending against regulatory enforcement actions brought by the FTC and State AGs, and providing strategic advice to help clients stay resilient in the face of evolving threats.

Katy also helps companies design and build incident response programs and conduct proactive breach preparedness activities, including developing actionable incident response plans and legal playbooks, running tabletop exercises simulating hypothetical incidents, and engaging third-party experts in advance of an incident.

Katy’s early experience includes supporting consumer protection enforcement in the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Data Privacy & Security Unit, advising on emerging policy issues at the Future of Privacy Forum, and gaining practical, in-house perspective at a leading cloud-based software company. Together, these roles inform her pragmatic, forward-looking approach to advising clients on privacy compliance and cybersecurity risk.

Benjamin Degoul Associate

Paris

Benjamin advises financial institutions, corporations and funds on a wide range of domestic and cross-border financial transactions.

Benjamin's practice focuses on private debt and debt capital markets transactions, in particular acquisition finance (including syndicated and leveraged financings), distressed debt financing, Euro Private Placements and venture debt financing.

Prior to joining Orrick, Benjamin worked at another leading U.S. law firm.

Marcus Deitz Partner

Houston

Marcus’ experience includes the representation of school districts, municipalities, counties, junior colleges, universities, special authorities and other political subdivisions in a variety of roles, including bond counsel, disclosure counsel and issuer’s counsel. In addition, he regularly represents underwriters and purchasers of both public and privately placed debt, regularly serving as underwriters’ counsel and bank counsel.

Complementary to his core practice, Marcus is also able to provide his clients guidance on derivative transactions and liquidity facilities, election law matters, and municipal and school law issues.

Before joining Orrick, Marcus clerked for the Colorado Court of Appeals and subsequently practiced as an associate and then a partner with several international law firms.

Jose DeJesus Analyst

New York

Jose DeJesus is a paralegal in the Finance Business Unit and the Public Finance practice group. He has participated in financings in which the firm has served as bond counsel, underwriter’s counsel and borrower counsel for various tax-exempt and taxable municipal and project financings.  He works mainly for the Energy and Infrastructure Group.  His duties include preliminary drafting of documents and UCC financing statements, preparation for and assisting with closings as well as post-closing matters.  He has been with the firm since 1995 and has been working as a paralegal since 1984.