Melissa B. Whalen

Clients benefit from Melissa’s thorough research and carefully written appellate briefs.

Melissa has served as the principal attorney for numerous appeals, including in arbitration, personal injury, insurance coverage, and business dispute cases.  In addition to briefing and arguing appeals, Melissa regularly guides clients through the process of preserving the record in the trial court, attacking judgments in the trial court through posttrial motions, staying enforcement of judgments, and perfecting an appeal.  Melissa also frequently partners with trial teams to develop legal strategies and preserve appellate issues during trial.  She also maintains an active pro bono practice, and recently secured a favorable published decision reversing an order denying her client’s request to renew a domestic violence restraining order.

In 2019, Melissa clerked for Judge Steve Kim, a magistrate judge at the United States District Court for the Central District of California.  The following year, she clerked on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for Judge Ferdinand Fernandez.  She returned to Horvitz & Levy in 2021 to continue her career as an appellate attorney and now manages the appellate fellowship program that first brought her to the firm in 2017.

Melissa graduated magna cum laude from Loyola Law School, where she served as Chief Research Editor of the Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, and was elected to the Order of the Coif.  Melissa obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in History, summa cum laude, from George Washington University.