Catherine Zinn

As Orrick’s Chief Client Officer, Catherine helps to ensure that the firm is a steward of our clients’ businesses. Catherine supports Orrick’s commitment to each client’s cause by listening to their views and concerns, responding to their needs, and articulating a shared understanding of priorities.

Among other responsibilities, Catherine meets with clients to solicit their feedback and works with the firm’s client relationship partners and teams to help deliver value added services. She also coordinates the firm’s strategic partnerships with thought leadership and community organizations, also designed to add value for our clients and enhance the firm’s social impact.

Previously, Catherine held senior client relations roles at DLA Piper and at JAMS, the country’s largest private provider of mediation and arbitration services.

Catherine serves on the boards of various organizations including: Silicon Valley Directors’ Exchange, Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, Bay Area Cancer Connections, and Legal Services Sales Organization. In January of 2015, the Secretary of Health and Human Services appointed her to the Board of the National Foundation for Fitness, Sports and Nutrition for a six-year term.

In 2008, Catherine served on Hillary Clinton’s National Finance Committee, and, beginning in 2011, she served on Barack Obama’s National Finance Committee as the National Coordinating Co-Chair of Lawyers for Obama. Currently, she is a Community Liaison for Kamala Harris for Senate.

Catherine was recognized as a 2014 Woman of Influence by the Silicon Valley Business Journal and a 2015 Woman of Achievement by Legal Momentum. In January of 2015 she was inducted into the International Women’s Forum and invited to be an American Leadership Forum Fellow for 2015-2016.

Catherine is a regular speaker on leadership, empowerment for women, and sales coaching. Recent speaking engagements include: “In Conversation with Secretary Madeleine Albright: Power of Connections” for Breast Cancer Connections, “Women as Rainmakers” for the California Women Lawyers Association, “Women in Negotiation” for Women’s Business Empowerment Day, and “Sales: the New Normal in the Legal Industry” for the Legal Marketing Association.

Catherine was a three-sport varsity athlete in college, tennis instructor, personal trainer, and head coach of a top ranked high-school tennis team in Washington, DC.

Catherine is a graduate of Hamilton College with a degree in Economics. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and eight-year-old son.