[1] He had a long career as a lawyer in private practice in San Francisco, and served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Division of the United States Department of Justice during the Obama administration.

[19] Orrick rejected the claim of a group of San Francisco Bay Area Chinese American businesses and shark fin suppliers that the ban was unconstitutionally discriminatory.

Orrick wrote that although "people of Chinese origin or culture undoubtedly overwhelmingly comprise the market for shark fin, ... a law is not unconstitutional simply because it has a racially disparate impact.

Orrick held that PG&E's refusal to test for groundwater contamination at the former plants gave rise to a continuing "imminent and substantial endangerment" to the environment and human health, particularly in the Marina District and Fisherman's Wharf neighborhoods.

[25] In March 2019, Orrick appointed an attorney to serve as an independent investigator to probe the killing of a homeless man with mental health problems who was shot by Oakland police in 2018.

[26] In 2015, Orrick issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) blocking the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), an anti-abortion group, from releasing secretly recorded videos of the National Abortion Federation (NAF).

CMP had earlier released heavily edited videos, which purported to show that Planned Parenthood had been inappropriately selling fetal tissue.

In his decision granting a restraining order, Orrick wrote that a TRO was necessary to prevent irreparable harm to NAF "in the form of harassment, intimidation, violence, invasion of privacy, and injury to reputation, and the requested relief is in the public interest.

[33] In February 2018, Orrick issued a preliminary injunction ordering the Trump administration to enforce limits on methane emissions from oil and gas wells on federal and tribal land.

"[36] In July 2023, he denied Sarah Andersen, Kelly McKernan, and Karla Ortiz's copyright infringement lawsuit against Stability AI, Midjourney, and DeviantArt.

[37] Since 2020, Orrick has been involved in the plea deals, trials and sentencing of people guilty of fraud and bribery in the ongoing San Francisco Department of Public Works corruption scandal.