Jennifer Lee is a Partner in Orrick’s San Francisco office who focuses her practice on complex commercial litigation in the financial services industry. She defends investment banks, corporations and financial services companies and has deep knowledge of the structured finance and mortgage servicing industries, having spent nearly a decade representing financial institutions in million and billion-dollar cases arising from the fallout of the 2009 financial crisis.
Jennifer defends her clients in federal and state litigation across the country that allege fraud, breach of contract, or securities law violations. She is a key member of an Orrick trial team that has shaped the legal landscape of RMBS litigation after the 2009 financial crisis, delivering out-of-the box arguments and innovative solutions for her clients, from initial receipt of pre-litigation demands through expert work, summary judgment and trial.
Jennifer's mortgage-backed securities litigation experience, which spans the last decade, includes:
- Representing Credit Suisse Securities in multiple million and billion-dollar actions across the country brought by monoline insurers, trustees, and regulators alleging breaches of representations and warranties, fraud, and securities violations. Recent highlights include conducting direct examination of an expert witness in a trial in February 2023, and securing partial dismissal of claims in December 2023 after arguing a motion to dismiss.
- Representing Goldman Sachs in two RMBS putback actions pending in the Southern District of New York alleging that Goldman breached representations and warranties regarding the characteristics of the deal loans.
Jennifer also has significant mortgage servicing expertise, including the following matters:
- Representing Nationstar in a breach of contract dispute alleging that Nationstar failed to properly service and made misrepresentations regarding thousands of early buy-out loans.
- Representing Ocwen Mortgage Servicing in a consumer class action in the Eastern District of California alleging numerous claims including RICO, California consumer protection statutes and fraud.
Jennifer also represents financial services companies related to commercial disputes, including:
- Representing Pipe Technologies, Inc. in multiple commercial disputes regarding payment of services.
- Representing a large financial services platform in multiple subpoenas issued for production of documents.
Jennifer is dedicated to pro bono work, including asylum claims, a cause close to her heart as a child of immigrants. Prior to joining Orrick, she held a fellowship position in the Law Reform Unit at the Legal Aid Society of New York, litigating both individual cases as well as class actions.
Jennifer is a leader and advocate for diversity and inclusion initiatives in the legal profession. She leads Orrick's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee in San Francisco. She has served as a fellow for the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity, and is active in the California Minority Counsel Program.
The strange contraption in this photo is at the heart of a recent decision regarding the pleading standard for DTSA claims. On June 15, Eastern District of Pennsylvania Judge Juan Sanchez denied a motion to dismiss counts of trade secret misappropriation against Joshua Andrew Adams, a former project engineer for PDC Machines, Inc. who left the company and later joined Nel Hydrogen A/S. PDC and Nel collaborated in 2008 to develop high-pressure hydrogen gas diaphragm compressors and signed a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) barring Nel from replicating or reverse engineering the technology. Adams was also subject to an NDA that prohibited him from using any of PDC’s confidential information and trade secrets without written permission. In the complaint, PDC asserts that Adams now works for Nel, and that Nel has filed at least one patent application listing Adams as the inventor for a high-pressure diaphragm hydrogen compressor that is nearly identical to PDC’s version. READ MORE →
