People

Jillian Victoria Wagner Senior Associate

Silicon Valley

Jillian has spent her career representing clients in wide variety of employment matters, including equity disputes, FEHA and Title VII claims, and employment contract claims. Jillian has been a crucial part of numerous litigation and trial teams. 

Before joining Orrick, Jillian clerked at San Francisco Superior Court.

Jillian graduated Magna Cum Laude and Order of the Coif from UC Hastings College of the Law.  During law school, Jillian won multiple awards for both brief writing and oral advocacy.  Jillian also served as the Executive Editor of the Hastings Women's Law Journal.  

Minako Wakabayashi Partner

Tokyo

Minako has significant experience advising international and domestic sponsors and developers on complex and innovative projects. She was called upon by the Japanese government in structuring the renewable Feed-in-Tariff scheme in Japan and prepared the government’s model contracts for specific contracts (power purchase contract/interconnection contract), which are a key component of the Feed-in-Tariff scheme in Japan. Recently, she has also been handling numerous corporate PPA projects.

She was appointed as Auditor of the Japan Wind Power Association (JWPA) in May 2022.

Minako practiced at Orrick’s New York office in 2004-2005. She also worked as a public prosecutor in Japan for four years and served as a member of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Supervising Committee for Public Bidding (Tokyo-to Nyusatsu Kanshi Iinkai) for eight years. She is serving as Audit of Veritas In Silico Inc since March 2022.

Christopher Walczyszyn Senior Associate

New York

Chris advises banks, non-banks, and other financial industry clients on a wide range of regulatory compliance and licensing issues, with an emphasis on the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA), the Truth in Savings Act (TISA), the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), and laws prohibiting unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices. He also assists financial services providers with examinations and represents clients before the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and other federal and state regulators. 

Skyler Walker Partner

Charlotte

Skyler has been recognized by Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in America for Securities/Capital Markets Law since 2023. In 2025, she was also named a “Rising Star” in North Carolina by Super Lawyers for Securities & Corporate Finance. Sklyer is currently on the Law360 Capital Markets Editorial Advisory Board since 2024.

Having lived and worked in Charlotte for nearly a decade, Skyler is committed to community philanthropy, supporting the arts, children’s health, and animal welfare.

She received her J.D. from Wake Forest University School of Law and holds a B.A. in Political Science and International Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Eric Wall Partner

San Francisco

Eric counsels private and public companies, including private equity funds, on the tax aspects of their most important business transactions, including domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, investments, joint ventures, and restructurings. In particular, Eric has significant experience with the tax matters most critical to clients in the technology and life science sectors. Eric also has significant experience advising clients on equity and other compensation tax matters, real estate tax matters and tax controversy matters.

Eric began his career at the firm as a summer associate in 2001.

Mary Wallace Of Counsel

Washington, D.C.

Mary represents financial institutions and other entities in connection with private debt financings (secured and unsecured), co-investment transactions, private equity financings and restructurings involving privately held companies. She regularly negotiates and drafts complex legal documents to implement these transactions.

Gerard Walsh Partner

Los Angeles

Jerry is particularly recognized for his work in connection with the acquisition, restructuring and realization of distressed debt in the real estate and hospitality markets. Clients seek him out for the most complex distressed debt transactions, including securitized and mezzanine debt intercreditor workouts and the establishment of mezzanine debt lending platforms. Jerry led a multidisciplinary Orrick team in one of the most sophisticated real estate debt transactions that was restructured in 2013, involving a series of complex transactions and multi-state litigation. Recognized as a key lawyer in the 2022 Real Estate category, a client told The Legal 500 US that Jerry is “smart, responsive and extraordinarily helpful and collaborative.”

In addition, Jerry leads Orrick’s hospitality practice and advises global opportunity, hotel and pension funds and advisors in connection with the acquisition, repositioning and disposing of hotel portfolios throughout the United States. He advises on acquisitions, joint ventures, financing, rebranding, disposition and negotiation of hotel management agreements, shared services and amenities agreements, and franchise agreements, including termination of hotel management and franchise agreements involving brands such as Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton, Marriott, St. Regis, Renaissance, Luxury Collection, Westin, Kimpton and other Sheraton/Starwood brands.

Jerry's representative clients include Cisco Systems, Inc., Cornerstone Advisers LLC, JMA Ventures, LACERA, The Newhall Land and Farming Company, Walton Street Capital, and Westbrook Partners.

Before joining Orrick, Jerry was a partner with a magic circle firm and chairman of the real estate group of a prominent national law firm.

Nicole Walsh Partner

Los Angeles

Nicole guides real estate investment funds, banks, developers and corporate clients through their most intricate real estate deals. With a strong background in corporate finance, she can bridge relevant viewpoints and offer distinct context across a wide range of real estate transactions, such as restructurings, workouts, foreclosures, mortgage and mezzanine financings, construction contracts, joint ventures, acquisitions and dispositions.

She serves as the relationship co-lead for one of our largest real estate clients, Hackman Capital Partners. Nicole also works closely with Sagehall Partners, Westbrook Partners, Local Bounti and Walton Street Capital, and has deep relationships with CoreVest.

Amy Walsh Partner

New York

Amy represents individuals and institutions in government investigations, enforcement actions and prosecutions conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Internal Revenue Service. She negotiates resolutions with government officials, but also tries cases against the government. She is a fierce advocate for her clients, and her work often results in the government declining to bring charges.

Amy was an Assistant United States Attorney for 12 years in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, where she led dozens of investigations and cases on behalf of the U.S. government and supervised several sections within the Office.

Amy has also served as a court-appointed monitor for a global financial institution.

Ashley Walter Partner & Chief Sustainability Officer

Seattle

Ashley is a co-founder and past chair of the Corporate Social Responsibility Law Committee of the ABA Business Law Section, has co-chaired the Practising Law Institute's annual ESG program for the last six years, and is heavily involved at Stanford Law School, where he has served as a moderator at the Stanford Directors' College, lectured at law school classes, and taught law school courses, most recently in the spring of 2025. Prior to Orrick, Ashley founded the corporate social responsibility practice at a Silicon Valley-based law firm.

Lu (Echo) Wang Senior Associate

Beijing

Her practice focuses on advising clients on mergers and acquisitions, private equity, capital markets and SEC compliance matters.

Jonas Wang Senior Associate

Washington, D.C.

Jonas represents clients in the technology sector in high-stakes matters in federal and state courts across the country, including successfully defending a win for a major technology company in leading briefing and delivering argument before the Federal Circuit, working as part of a team recognized as Litigators of the Week for flipping a multi-billion-dollar jury verdict, and others. Jonas also recently led a pro bono appeal and delivered argument to secure a precedential victory on behalf of thousands of U.S. veterans, a win that was highlighted in the American Lawyer as among the 15 top cases representing "some of the very best of the legal industry's pro bono efforts" in its annual national report.

Before joining Orrick, Jonas served as a law clerk to the Honorable Beverly B. Martin of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and the Honorable Analisa Torres of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. A graduate of Yale Law School, Jonas was an Articles and Essays Editor for the Yale Law Journal and a member of the Veterans Legal Services Clinic.

Jonas previously served as a staff attorney at a leading nonprofit and litigated in federal district and appellate courts challenging adverse effects from criminal fines and fees.