Siobhan Handley

Siobhan Handley is Orrick’s Chief Talent Officer. She is responsible for developing and executing talent and human resource strategies to advance the firm’s strategy and serve its clients.

In collaboration with the firm’s leadership team, she focuses on designing and implementing programs to recruit, inspire and advance the best legal and staff talent.

Siobhan previously served as Orrick’s Managing Director for Resources. In that role, she spearheaded the development of the firm’s innovative talent model—the first of its kind in a major law firm—which replaces the traditional associate lockstep advancement system with merit-based advancement. As chair of the firm’s Talent Committee, she oversees Orrick’s lawyer training and performance feedback program – which is one of the most rigorous in the market. She also has led the creation of a range of new lawyer and professional staff roles.

Siobhan brings to this role extensive experience on the front line of client service, having been a partner in the firm’s product liability litigation and mass tort defense group. For more than a decade, she was a member of the Orrick team that acted as National Counsel to Union Carbide Corporation in connection with asbestos-related personal injury lawsuits and served as lead trial counsel in cases across the country. Siobhan was one of the key trial counsel in the highly-publicized landmark trial in Texas State Court, Brazoria County, where Kelly-Moore Paint Company sued Union Carbide for $1.4 billion in compensatory damages and $4.2 billion in punitive damages that resulted in a complete defense verdict. In addition, she served as trial counsel for significant product liability cases for other clients including Wyeth and Flexible Products.