Orrick ramps up coastal offices with partner trio

The firm is taking on a tax partner to ramp up its New York group. Peter Connors is joining from Baker & McKenzie, where he was the former co-chair of the New York tax department.
On the West Coast the firm has bulked up its Silicon Valley and Seattle teams. Intellectual property partner Vickie Feeman joins Silicon Valley from Howrey Simon Arnold & White, while technology partner Keith Cochran moves to Seattle from telecoms company Terabeam Corporation.
Connors' practice focuses on advising international corporations on both domestic and international tax issues - especially using financial instruments and derivatives, and working on the tax issues of banks and insurance companies.
He has handled a lot of work on asset securitisations, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, corporate finance and tax controversies with the Internal Revenue Service.
Feeman has a client list boasting companies such as Lucasfilm, Connectix Corporation and Aztech Systems and handles work including copyright infringement, trademark dilution and misappropriation of trade secrets.
Cochran is general counsel for corporate development at telecoms company Terabeam. He was heavily involved in the company's recent negotiations and closing of a $450m (£316.6m) strategic relationship with Lucent Technologies. He joins the firm's burgeoning Pacific Northwest practice, which has tripled in size in the last year.
Orrick chief executive Ralph Baxter said: "We could not be more pleased with the success of our Seattle office and our ability to attract the best lawyers in terms of talent. This will help us to further grow our office, allowing us to take full advantage of our position as the only Seattle law firm able to scale with Pacific Northwest companies in terms of global reach."