Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe

Founding and expansion

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. 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. Goodfellow subsequently joined Charles Eells to form Goodfellow & Eells. Eells 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.

Orrick's earliest work included funding the 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.

In the 1980s, the firm expanded outside of the Bay Area, establishing offices in New York City and Los Angeles.

After establishing an outpost in Singapore in 1996, the firm opened an office there in 2001, but closed it in 2003, attributed to a poor economy in Southeast Asia; In 2021, Orrick again established an office in Singapore. The firm opened a Tokyo office in 1997 and a London practice in 1998.

Orrick acquired 40 lawyers and their litigation practices from Donovan, Leisure, Newton & Irvine in 1998.

21st century

In 2013, Mitch Zuklie, a Silicon Valley tech lawyer, assumed the role of the firm's chairman and CEO. The same year, Orrick was the first global law firm to establish an Impact Finance & Social Enterprise practice.

On Veterans Day in 2014, the firm announced the 2015 launch of its Veterans' Legal Career Fair, to match employers with lawyers who are veterans, active-duty service members, or military spouses. The annual event has run since 2015 and has been enlisted by over 800 active duty members.

In 2018, Orrick started a legal tech investment initiative.

A Paris office was opened in 2002, along with its Global Operations & Innovation Center in Wheeling, West Virginia.

In 2003, the firm added a team from the Venture Law Group. 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.

In 2006, the firm engaged in merger negotiations with legacy Wall Street firm Dewey Ballantine; the proposed merger was unsuccessful. The same year, Orrick expanded its Paris office through a combination with Rambaud Martel, a French firm.

In 2008, Orrick expanded into Germany by combining with Hölters & Elsing (Partnerschaft von Rechtsanwälten); establishing 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.

Legal representation

Orrick acquired asylum for three members of the Albanian Demiraj family from the U.S. Supreme Court in 2012.

The firm worked on the legislation enacted in California in October 2017 to criminalize sexual extortion, part of a national effort on behalf of pro bono client Legal Momentum.

Orrick lawyers provided legal and technical assistance to the Public International Law & Policy Group on issues related to countries in the Middle East, including Egypt, Libya, Syria, and Tunisia.

Orrick has advised Stripe, Inc. and Anthropic on VC financings. In 2024, the firm advised Microsoft on signing an agreement with Constellation Energy to reopen Three Mile Island, a nuclear facility in Pennsylvania, to serve the company's data center operations.

In 2025, the firm represented Intersect Power on an $800 million investment and partnership with Google and TPG Rise Climate to provide energy and storage to new data centers.

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.