Whitney Heafner

Litigation Experience

• Prevailed in arbitration (second chair) representing a leading provider of engineered substrate process technology for the semiconductor industry in a breach of contract dispute. In addition to damages, recovered over $440,000 in attorneys’ fees, which was more than seven times the size of the damages award. Levied debtors’ bank accounts in order to collect judgment.
• Tried breach of lease case (second chair) against a fast-food restaurant franchisee and recovered damages in full as well as attorneys’ fees.
• Defended a multinational marketer, seller and distributor of branded consumer products in a putative consumer class action alleging violations of California’s Consumers Legal Remedies Act and Unfair Competition Law, resulting in dismissal.
• Defended a multinational company in a consumer class action predicated on alleged violations of California’s Invasion of Privacy Act, resulting in a favorable settlement.
• Defending a nationally recognized mortgage lender in various actions for fraud, rescission and wrongful foreclosure.
• Member of the onsite incident response team after a content delivery and media technology company experienced a massive data breach; advised the company regarding consumer notice obligations and helped coordinate the company’s statements to vendors, business partners, consumers and the press.
• Represented a multinational, high-end custom home construction company against an involuntary dissolution and claims alleging breach of fiduciary duties.
• Counsel to lenders and loan servicers in reverse mortgage cases.
• Secured a favorable settlement for a student with learning disabilities arising out of a dispute with a public school district.
• Representing an adopted child suffering from severe emotional disturbances in administrative proceedings in an effort to secure additional state and federal benefits.
• Experience in mediations, arbitrations and litigation.
• Experience in California state and federal courts, as well as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Representative Class Action Experience

• Defended a major manufacturer and distributor in a putative nationwide consumer class action, resulting in dismissal.
• Defended a direct broadcast satellite service provider in a putative nationwide class action for dish installation practices.
• Defended an international automobile manufacturer in consumer class action and products liability multidistrict litigation and state court consolidated proceedings involving over 200 nationwide class actions.

Whitney Heafner is a senior attorney in the firm’s Litigation & Trial Practice Group, and she is licensed to practice in California. Her practice primarily focuses on business litigation, financial services, contract disputes and real estate litigation.

In 2012, Whitney received her J.D., magna cum laude, from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, where she was awarded membership in the Order of the Coif and named both a Fritz. B. Burns and a Sayre MacNeil Scholar. During law school, Whitney was on the dean’s honor list and earned first honor awards for the highest grades in Contracts, Mediation Advocacy, Intellectual Property, Constitutional Law and Criminal Law. She served as the chief developments editor for the Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review and held a judicial externship in the Central District of California. Whitney received a B.A. in philosophy from Loyola Marymount University, where she graduated summa cum laude with honors in May 2009.

Whitney has been named a 2014 and 2015 “Southern California Rising Star” by Super Lawyers magazine.

Bar Admissions

• California

Education

• Loyola Law School (J.D., 2012)
• Loyola Marymount University (B.A., 2009)