Profile
Heather is a skilled litigator who represents businesses, individuals, and government entities in complex commercial litigation. She is focused on designing efficient and innovative strategies to safeguard and promote her clients' legal and economic interests.
Heather has unique experience in First Amendment jurisprudence, including the Noerr-Pennington doctrine and California's anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) law, which insulate parties from liability in certain situations where their conduct relates to the rights of free speech or petition. She has obtained dismissal in state and federal courts of would-be claims for a wide array of business torts, such as interference with economic advantage and unfair competition, as well RICO and civil rights violations, sparing her clients the cost and intrusion of discovery and extended litigation.
Clients seek Heather’s counsel on a range of disputes, including fraud, false advertising (both under the Lanham Act and California state law), and intellectual property claims involving patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets.
Capabilities
Experience
- Secured reversal in the California Court of Appeal of the erroneous denial of a city’s anti-SLAPP motion filed against breach of contract and due process claims based on the political activities of the city’s elected officials.°
- Obtained in the trial court and defended in the California Court of Appeal dismissal pursuant to the anti-SLAPP statute of defamation, interference, and unfair competition claims in a complex dispute involving patent ownership rights.°
- Secured dismissal of trade libel, interference, and unfair competition claims pursuant to the anti-SLAPP statute on behalf of an international technology analyst firm and its founder and CEO relating to the authorship of a blog post.°
- Obtained dismissal of RICO claims and allegations of civil rights violations filed against a Fortune 500 oil and gas company under the federal Noerr-Pennington doctrine immunizing petitioning activities.
- Obtained reversal in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal of an inappropriately granted summary judgment award against an inmate whose First Amendment Free Exercise rights were violated.
- Defended a leading international entertainment company in a six-month, high-profile, multi-billion dollar wrongful death trial centering around allegations of negligent hiring.
- Defeated at a three-day bench trial claims of fraud relating to manufacturing agreements on behalf of a distributor and its primary shareholder.°
- Obtained dismissal of claims for fraud and violations of consumer protection statutes under New York, Connecticut, and Vermont law on behalf of a Fortune 100 insurance company.°
- Obtained a preliminary injunction to preclude further infringement of the patent of a global toy company, precluding the marketing and sale of infringing products online and by major retailers.°
- Obtained dismissal of trademark infringement and false designation claims on behalf of a biotechnology company, establishing an implied license precluding recovery.°
- Obtained dismissal of a civil action filed by the United States of America alleging a unit of a publicly traded company failed to honor an IRS levy.°
°The above representations were handled by Ms. Silver prior to joining Greenberg Traurig, LLP.
Credentials
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J.D., summa cum laude, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, 2012
- Valedictorian
- Order of the Coif
- B.A., magna cum laude, Boston University, 2009
- California
- French
- Spanish