Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, known as Orrick, is a global law firm serving clients primarily in the technology, energy, infrastructure, finance, life sciences, and health tech sectors. Founded in 1863, in San Francisco, California, where it maintains headquarters; it has offices in over 25 international markets.[2]
Orrick's headquarters at the Orrick Building on Howard Street in San Francisco
Founding and First 100 Years
The firm traces its origins to the 1863 organization of the German Savings and Loan Society (later joined to First Interstate Bank of California), with John R. Jarboe as general counsel.[3] Jarboe and partners W.S. Goodfellow and Ralph C. Harrison, later dissolved San Francisco firm, Jarboe, Harrison & Goodfellow in 1891, following Harrison's election as justice to the California Supreme Court. Jarboe died two years later at age 57, in poor health.[4] Goodfellow subsequently joined Charles Eells to form Goodfellow & Eell.[5] Ells helped organize the Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company, in the aftermath of the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906. William H. Orrick joined the firm in 1910, followed by George Herrington and Eric Sutcliffe.[4]
Orrick's earliest work included funding Golden Gate Bridge construction; shaping the California Corporate Securities Act; the first offerings under the Securities Act of 1933; and litigating over hydroelectric power and water development rights in the Lake Tahoe region.[6][7]
Global Expansion and Strategic Growth
In the 1980s, the firm expanded outside of the Bay Area, establishing offices in New York City and Los Angeles.[8][9] It opened its first international offices in Tokyo, during the late 1990s; London and Paris offices were added in 2002,[10][verification needed] along with its "Global Operations Center" in Wheeling, WV.[11][12]
In 2003, the firm added a team from the Venture Law Group (VLG).[14] In 2005, Orrick expanded its London office and opened offices in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai with alumni of subsequently defunct law firm Coudert Brothers.[15]
In 2006, the firm engaged in merger negotiations with legacy Wall Street firm Dewey Ballantine;[16] the merger was unsuccessful.[17] The same year, Orrick expanded its Paris office through a combination with Rambaud Martel, a M&A and dispute resolution firm in France.[18]
In 2008, Orrick expanded into Germany by combining with Hölters & Elsing (Partnerschaft von Rechtsanwälten);[19] today, the firm has offices in Düsseldorf and Munich. That year, the firm admitted almost two dozen partners in its London, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., offices from the San Francisco firm Heller Ehrman, including 27 hired after Heller's September 26, 2008, announcement of dissolution.[20]
In 2013, Mitch Zuklie, a Silicon Valley tech lawyer, assumed the role of firm Chairman & CEO.[21][22]
More recent office openings have included Geneva in 2015,[23] Houston in 2016,[24] Austin in 2018, Boston in 2019,[25] and Singapore in 2021.[26][27]
In 2023, Orrick merged with AmLaw 200 Buckley.[29][30] This grew Orrick's financial regulation, enforcement, and litigation services, and doubled the firm's footprint in Washington. D.C. The combination expanded Orrick's offerings to consumer banks, fintechs, and the payment arms of major global tech players.[30]
In 2025, Orrick expanded by hiring a 13-lawyer tech company and venture capital team from Gunderson Dettmer in Los Angeles.[31]
Recognition and rankings
The American Lawyer included Orrick among the top 5 firms on its 2024 A-List, for the seventh consecutive year.[32]
Financial Times named Orrick North America's most digital law firm in 2020 and 2023. Between 2016 and 2024, they named Orrick among North America's most innovative law firms nine times.[33][34][22]
Law360 has recognized Orrick across numerous practices, naming the firm Employment Law Group of the Year for the fifth time and Project Finance Group of the Year for the seventh time, in 2020;[37] Tech Group of the Year for the fifth time,[38][39] and IP Group of the Year for the fourth time, in 2016;[40] Privacy Group of the Year, in 2016;[41] and Construction Group of the Year, in 2024.[42]
The American Lawyer named Orrick as Intellectual Property Litigation Department of the Year for 2015.[43]The Recorder recognized Orrick's California-based employment litigation team as California Labor & Employment Department of the Year for the fourth consecutive year in 2017.[44]
Global Arbitration Review (GAR) included Orrick in its 2024 list of the world's top 30 international arbitration practices.[48]
The Bond Buyer ranked Orrick #1 bond counsel in 2024, a position the firm has held for more than two decades.[49]
Culture Recognition
Orrick was named one of the "50 Best Law Firms for Women" by Working Mother magazine for the eleventh time in 2017.[50][51]
Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA) awarded Orrick with the 2020 Thomas L. Sager Award. The award is for Am Law 200 law firms committed to a more diverse workforce and improving the hiring, retention and promotion of diverse attorneys.[52]
Yale Law Women ranked Orrick the top firm for Diversity in its Top Firms Report 2024,[53][54] and Diversity Lab named Orrick a Mansfield Certified firm for the seventh year in a row.[55]
In 2024, the firm launched the Orrick AI Law Center, which provides a free state AI law tracker and a guide to the EU AI Act, and the Orrick Online Safety Law Center to help clients monitor emerging online safety, privacy and harmful content laws.[59]
In 2023, Orrick launched Orrick Tech Studio. This is a free-to-use online website for technology startups and investors.[60] It provides 50+ customizable forms and document generators for content such as nondisclosure agreements, board governance documents, and employee offer letters. It also includes articles, videos, and podcasts that address relevant business, legal, and regulatory issues.[60]
In 2018, the firm started a legal tech investment initiative.[60]
Community Initiatives
On Veterans Day in 2014, the firm announced the launch of the Veterans' Legal Career Fair. The event matches legal employers with lawyers who are veterans, active-duty service members or military spouses.[61] The annual event has run since 2015 and helped more than 8500 active duty members. Since its launch, the fair has expanded to include resume writing, practical sessions, and headshots.[62]
Orrick was ranked #8 for U.S. pro bono impact and #5 for international pro bono impact by The American Lawyer in its 2024 pro bono rankings.[63][64]
Orrick was the first global law firm to establish an Impact Finance & Social Enterprise practice.[65][66]
An Orrick team worked on the legislation enacted in California in October 2017 to criminalize sexual extortion, part of a national effort on behalf of the firm's pro bono client Legal Momentum.[67]
Orrick has advised Stripe[81] and Anthropic[82] on VC financings and Microsoft[83] and Intersect Power[84] on multiple energy transactions.
The firm has advised the City of New York on multi-year infrastructure projects, including a $13 billion project to replace Rikers Island with community-based jails and the Hudson Tunnel, a key part of the $30 billion Gateway Development rail project.[85]
Orrick helped Gilead overturn a record $2.5 billion patent verdict against Merck’s Idenix Pharmaceuticals in 2018 and later secured a Federal Circuit invalidation of the patent. The firm also helped Gildea’s Kite Pharma reverse a $1.2 billion CAR T patent verdict against Juno Therapeutics, with the U.S. Supreme Court denying review in 2022.[86][87]
Orrick represented Sonos in multiple patent litigation cases against Google, including a 2022 ITC ruling that found Google infringed five Sonos patents and barred the importation of certain Google smart speakers.[88]
In 2022, Orrick secured a New York Court of Appeals reversal for Credit Suisse in a mortgage-backed securities case.[89]
The firm also represented UBS Asset Management and certain funds in a bankruptcy dispute in 2024, in which the judge ruled that UBS was owed more than $100 million under various loan agreements.[90]
In 2024, Orrick overturned a $2 billion trade secrets verdict for Pegasystems, with the Virginia Court of Appeals ordering a new trial due to jury errors, reversing the largest damages verdict in the state’s history.[91]
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$1.59 billion (2024) [1] 
