2024 DIVERSITY DATABASE PREMIUM SPONSOR Orrick

Orrick is a global firm of more than 1,100 attorneys that is fiercely committed to teamwork and innovation. The firm has offices across the globe, including in California, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Texas, Washington, West Virginia, and Washington, DC.

It All Began with a Breakup

In the late 1800s, W.S. Goodfellow and his partners, John J. Jarboe and Ralph C. Harrison, walked away from their San Francisco firm, Jarboe, Harrison & Goodfellow. Goodfellow then teamed up with Charles Eells to form Goodfellow & Eells. The firm helped organize the Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company after San Francisco’s catastrophic earthquake and fire in 1906 and worked on water rights matters. In 1910, William H. Orrick joined the firm, and over the years, George Herrington and Eric Sutcliffe—who became managing partner in 1947—jumped aboard too. One of the firm’s earliest successes was its involvement in the financing of the Golden Gate Bridge—a matter that set the firm’s stage for big things to come.

Focused on Four

Today, Orrick focuses on serving clients in four sectors: technology and innovation, life sciences and healthtech, energy and infrastructure, and finance. Its practice spans transactional, regulatory, and litigation work. The firm has counseled more than 5,000 venture-backed companies, including Pinterest, Stripe, and SoFi, guiding startups through successful initial public offerings or acquisitions. The team is on the cutting edge of areas such as AI, fintech, and blockchain.

The firm is particularly well-known for its energy work, holding the No. 1 spot in Vault’s Clean Tech & Renewable Energy rankings. The firm represents the leading players in solar and wind, and it advises clients globally on innovative energy sources such as green hydrogen and biofuels and on carbon capture and other emerging energy technologies. In the past several years, the firm has worked on more than 150 bids for new renewables projects.

Orrick also boasts one of the strongest intellectual property (IP) teams in the country, representing many of the most successful global tech brands in headline-making cases. The firm’s IP lawyers handle copyright, inter partes review, IP counseling, patents, trade secrets, trademarks, and even the legal implications of 3D printing. The firm also offers some of the most active cyber, privacy, and data innovation practices. 

The firm represents more than 700 fintech clients. It is a market leader in securitization and public finance and has strong teams in restructuring and real estate. Orrick also defends banks and funds in complex litigation.

Innovation Time

Innovation is just another part of life at Orrick. Associates can spend up to 100 billable hours on innovation-related projects to help the firm and its clients. Associates have engaged in innovation “sprints,” which incorporate principles of design thinking to challenge assumptions and brainstorm new solutions. Other associates have created tools to enhance the efficiency of delivering legal services, apps to target client needs, and other projects. It’s unsurprising that Financial Times has regularly ranked Orrick among the top 10 most innovative law firms in North America.

• We're litigating high-stakes AI matters for clients like GitHub, Microsoft, and Workday. We've helped AI companies and investors raise $36 billion in 20 months, including advising Anthropic on Amazon’s investments in SAP and Workday on AI acquisitions.
• We advise Microsoft on cutting-edge decarbonization deals, including a 24/7 renewable energy power purchase agreement (PPA) for a data center (recognized by the Financial Times), a first-of-its-kind fusion energy purchase, major CO₂-removal contracts, and a 20-year PPA reviving the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor. We helped Intersect Power partner with Google and TPG Rise Climate to supply renewable energy to new data centers.
• With more than 30 trials and appeals in two years, we’ve represented Sonos in its global patent fight with Google and won a $2 billion appeal for Pegasystems in a major trade secrets case. We have advised on more than 20 life sciences cases for leading pharma companies and have successfully represented major banks in litigation seeking more than $20 billion in damages.

• Top 10 Most Innovative Law Firm in North America for nine consecutive years and two-time Most Digital Law Firm, 2024—Financial Times
• National and IP Litigation Department of the Year Finalists—the only firm on both lists, 2023; Top 5 on the A-List for 7 years in the top quartile and 12 years on the list; and Top 10 for Pro Bono in the United States for 10 consecutive years, 2024—The American Lawyer
• Five-time Technology Practice Group of the Year, 2024—Law360
• No. 1 on 50 Best Law Firms for Women & Diversity List for 16 years, 2024—Seramount
• Top Firm for Diversity for 12 years, 2024—Yale Law Women