People

Michelle (McGann) MacGregor Senior Strategist

Washington, D.C.

Before joining Orrick, Michelle gained broad experience working with elected leadership at the federal and state government levels. Most recently as Executive Director of the Republican Legislative Campaign Committee, Michelle was responsible for advancing the Committee’s objectives of providing financial support, leadership development, and strategic assistance to lawmakers nationwide. In her previous leadership positions at the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee, Michelle reported directly to Senate and House leadership and was tasked with advancing their objectives by evaluating and managing the nexus of policy initiatives and political impact.

Michelle is a graduate of Amherst College, where she received a B.A. in Political Science.

David Aaronson Partner

Houston

David’s regularly represents private equity funds and their portfolio companies, domestic and international oil and gas companies, renewable energy developers, services companies, and project developers, among others.  

Ali Abugheida Partner

San Francisco

Prior to joining Orrick, Ali was a partner at Buckley LLP. He began his career at WilmerHale, where his practice included litigation and government enforcement matters.

Charles Adams Partner

Geneva

Charles’s experience spans four decades at the highest levels of international dispute-resolution; he has acted in more than 300 arbitral proceedings under various governing laws and under the rules of almost all arbitral institutions in fora all over the world, most frequently as lead counsel, but also on occasion as chairman or co-arbitrator on tribunals in high-stakes cases.

His experience includes disputes in engineering and construction, energy and infrastructure, mining, transportation, telecommunications, life sciences and biotech, intellectual property and franchising and distribution, among many other fields of commercial or industrial endeavor. He has conducted commercial and investor-state arbitrations under the auspices of ICSID, the ICC, ICDR/AAA, LCIA, DIAC, SCC, SAC and SIAC. Charles also advises on export control regulations and economic sanctions administered by the U.S. and the European Union, including matters relating to customs regulations, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, anti-money laundering rules and anti-boycott requirements.

For more than 10 years Charles was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Dubai International Arbitration Centre (DIAC), and he has served on the Board of Advisors of the NGO End Human Trafficking Now and as a guest lecturer at the UN’s International Development Law Organization. Charles frequently appears on Francophone television channels (TF1, LCI, TV5 Monde, Télévision Suisse Romande), as a commentator on political, economic and cultural matters.

Shaya Afshar Senior Associate

Santa Monica

During his time with Orrick, Shaya was seconded to cloud-based information security company Zscaler, Inc. as commercial and corporate counsel. Prior to joining Orrick, Shaya was an associate in the IP and Technology Transactions Group at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, and prior to law school, he spent a year teaching English in Shenzhen, China.

Chabha Agrea Associate

Paris

Chabha intervient pour le compte d'entreprises françaises et internationales et les conseille sur tous les aspects du droit social.

Avant de rejoindre Orrick, Chabha a effectué un stage au sein du département droit social du cabinet Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

Natasha Ahmed Partner

London

Before moving into private practice, Natasha spent five years in the in-house legal team of a global brand management company.

Marvin Noussayaba Ambi Aideyan Associate

Munich

His practice focuses on providing ongoing advice to national and international clients in connection with corporate governance and stock corporation law, liability, and structural measures as well as complex (cross-border) transactions.

In addition, Marvin Aideyan assists his clients with sustainability reporting and ESG issues, including European CSRD.

Prior to joining Orrick, he worked as a research assistant and trainee lawyer for a leading German law firm and a leading global chemical company.

Helen Aki Senior Associate

San Francisco

She advises clients on a wide variety of matters, including energy storage and power purchase agreements, debt and tax equity financing, and project acquisitions and sales. She also spent several months on secondment to the project finance group of a major U.S. renewable energy developer. 

As a law student, Helen worked as a summer legal intern in the Administrative Law Judge Division of the California Public Utilities Commission, as a senior business analyst with Pacific Gas and Electric Company and as a legal trainee at Positive Planet UK.

Before practicing law, she led programs with state and local governments and ratepayer-funded energy efficiency programs to advance the adoption of clean technologies, including battery storage, virtual power plants, commercial and industrial lighting and advanced building control systems.

Ali Al-Khasawneh Of Counsel

Geneva; London

Ali has acted as counsel in arbitration proceedings under the ICC, UNCITRAL, LCIA, Swiss, ICSID and DIAC rules in arbitrations seated in London, Paris, The Hague, Dubai, Madrid, Geneva, Zurich and Muscat, and governed by English, UAE, German, New York, Omani, Swiss, Saudi and Libyan laws. Ali has also acted as tribunal secretary in arbitral proceedings under the ICC rules and Permanent Court of Arbitration administered arbitrations under the UNCITRAL rules.

Prior to joining Orrick, Ali was previously legal counsel at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. Ali also worked at an investment treaty arbitration specialist law firm in Paris and at the Dubai office of a leading international law firm.

Walter Alarkon Senior Associate

New York

His experience includes drafting and negotiating documentation specific to project finance, tax equity finance, bond offerings, and general corporate matters.