Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe

For a global law firm of its scale, Orrick stands out for its narrow sector focus and excellence in its chosen areas. Its 25+ offices globally are set on serving clients in four sectors: technology and innovation, decarbonisation & infrastructure modernisation, finance & fintech, and life sciences & healthtech. This sharp focus is mirrored in its London practice, where its venture capital and renewable energy capabilities earned Band 1 and Band 2 rankings from Chambers UK 2025. The London office has also achieved steady revenue growth of 3–5% annually over the past three years, reaching approximately £76 million by the end of 2023. Orrick’s London Technology Companies Group advises companies and investors at all stages of financings and investments from pre-seed through to strategic exits including IPOs. The team has been ranked no. 1 by Pitchbook in the European venture capital tech market by deal volume for eight years in a row and recognised by Chambers UK for venture capital investment for 16 years in a row. This sustained market leadership has allowed Orrick to cultivate a vast industry network and a comprehensive understanding of market trends, which it continues to actively expand. Orrick’s London Technology Companies Group frequently hosts events to bring the venture capital community together, such as the Investor Speed Networking Event (co-hosted with Innovate Finance) and the Annual London Technology Client Reception. They also provide practical insights for UK startups through the UK Founder Series and market analyses in their proprietary Deal Flow report, now in its fourth year of publication. A further competitive edge of the group lies in the firm’s deep roots in Silicon Valley and the ranks of US-qualified lawyers in London, providing startup clients with seamless access to expertise as they seek to raise money from deep-pocketed US institutional investors in later stages. For example, the team has advised OKYO Pharma Limited, a UK-based biotechnology company focused on developing treatments to inflammatory dry eye diseases, on its Main Market IPO and Nasdaq dual-listing for a total of $2.5 million fundraising, as well as its subsequent Main Market de-listing due to low trading volume. In 2023, Orrick’s London Technology Companies Group closed over 200 growth financings and tech M&A deals, totalling $3 billion in 2023. Recent highlights included advising Graphcore, a UK semiconductor company that develops processors for AI and machine learning applications, on its acquisition by Softbank for $600+m, and FINBOURNE Technology, a market-leading provider of investment management solutions, in its £100+ million fundraising, one of the largest series B raises in the UK in 2024. The team has deep expertise in advising payment solution providers, working with UK fintechs such as Wirex Limited - an integrated platform for storing, using, and trading both fiat and cryptocurrencies - and Griffin Bank, the UK’s first full-stack Banking-as-a-Service platform. The dedicated support provided by Orrick includes advice on financings, regulatory guidance, including financial services and crypto regulation, governance, and commercial matters. Orrick’s London Energy and Infrastructure Group is an active player in the renewable energy sector, having recently worked on 27 offshore wind projects in the UK and other renewable generation projects globally. The team primarily represents investors, developers and joint ventures in acquiring and disposing of interests in renewable energy projects, with longstanding clients such as Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (a Danish infrastructure investment firm), Ørsted (the world’s largest offshore wind developer), and PKA (a Danish pension fund). In 2023, Orrick’s London Energy and Infrastructure Group advised a joint venture between Ørsted, AXA Investment Managers and Crédit Agricole Assurances on the £1.141 billion sale of transmission assets for the 1.3GW Hornsea Two offshore wind farm - the world’s largest - to a joint venture of two offshore transmission owners. In the UK’s electricity market, key functions of the electricity system, such as generator and transmission operator, have to be provided by different and unaffiliated entities, due to concerns about monopoly power. Consequently, Orrick’s developer client must sell transmission assets that they have developed, which are infrastructure for delivering power from offshore wind farms to the National Grid, to third parties, through a tender process overseen by the energy regulator Ofgem. Such a highly regulated and technical process demanded a detailed understanding of the market and knowledge of Ofgem’s tender and licensing procedures, which Orrick was well-placed to deliver. Orrick also negotiated, on behalf of Ørsted, the terms of the operations and maintenance services to be provided by the new owners with regards to the transmission assets, which helped secure competitive pricing and optimal operations for the project as a whole in the long-term. When Hornsea Two became operational, it set a record as the UK’s lowest-cost offshore wind project and the world’s largest offshore wind farm, providing clean energy to over 1.4 million UK homes.