Orrick acquired 40 lawyers and their litigation practices from Donovan, Leisure, Newton & Irvine in 1998. In 2003, the firm added a team from the Venture Law Group. In 2005 at the expense of the now-defunct law firm Coudert Brothers Orrick expanded its London office and opened offices in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai with Coudert Brothers professionals. In 2006, the firm engaged in merger negotiations with legacy Wall Street firm Dewey Ballantine; the merger was unsuccessful. The same year, Orrick expanded its Paris office through a combination with Rambaud Martel, a M&A and dispute resolution firm in France. In 2008, Orrick expanded into Germany by combining with Hölters & Elsing ; today, the firm has offices in Düsseldorf and Munich. Also in 2008, 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 Sept. 26, 2008, announcement of dissolution. On November, 2008 Orrick laid off 40 associates and 35 staffers in various offices, in the US, and said that because of the economy and the firm's recent capital investments, profits per partner would be down that year. In June 2017, Orrick was announced as one of thirty law firms piloting the Mansfield Rule. Created by Diversity Lab, and modeled after the NFL's Rooney Rule the Mansfield Rule is named after Arabella Mansfield, the first woman admitted to practice in the US.
Recognition and rankings
Law360 named Orrick to its Global 20 list for the sixth time in 2017.
Financial Times named Orrick North America's most innovative law firm in its 2016 and 2017 North America Innovative Lawyers reports.
The American Lawyer included Orrick among the top 10 firms on its 2017 A-List.
The American Lawyer named Orrick as Intellectual Property Litigation Department of the Year for 2015." In addition, the firm was one of six finalists for Litigation Department of the Year.
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.
The National Law Journal named Orrick to its Appellate Hot List for the sixth time in 2017.
Orrick's London technology team was recognized as the Service Provider of the Year at the 15th annual Investor AllStars awards.
Orrick was named one of the "50 Best Law Firms for Women" by Working Mother magazine and Flex-Time Lawyers in 2017 for the ninth time. The firm was also named to Yale Law Women's list of the Top TenFamily Friendly U.S. Law Firms for the fifth time.
Orrick ranked #8 out of 220 firms on The American Lawyer's 2017 Diversity Scorecard.
Orrick earned a score of 100 percent for the twelfth consecutive year in the 2018 Human Rights Campaign's annual Corporate Equality Index and Best Places to Work survey.
Orrick's summer associate programs were ranked #1 in five markets across the U.S. in The American Lawyer's 2017 Summer Associates Survey.
Social impact
Orrick was ranked #9 for U.S. pro bono impact and #6 for international pro bono impact by The American Lawyer in its 2017 pro bono rankings. In 2015, Orrick was named to Law360's list of Pro Bono All Stars. 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. Orrick lawyers provided legal and technical assistance to the Public International Law & Policy Group on public international law issues facing countries in the Middle East aspiring to become democracies, including Egypt, Libya, Syria and Tunisia. Orrick managed asylum to three family members of the Demiraj family in an asylum case that was submitted and approved by the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2014, the firm launched the Orrick Cares program in celebration of Orrick's 150th anniversary. 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. Orrick was the first global law firm to establish an Impact Finance & Social Enterprise practice.
