Lisa Heffran Ms. Heffran serves as the indispensable paralegal and client liaison person in our Orange County office and has impressed everyone with whom she comes in contact with her energy, enthusiasm and intelligence. She had served as a legal assistant to Mr. John Newport when he was engaged in his active workers’ compensation practice that was associated with this office. When he chose to change to “of counsel” status and close his office, she went on to another firm assisting with civil litigation matters in both state and federal courts. We soon realized, however, that she would be a key asset for this firm and managed to convince her to return.
A lot of her really great attributes are due, undoubtedly, to her deep mid-western roots. She was born in the megalopolis of Onawa, Iowa and raised in neighboring Moville. (You may have difficulty finding them on a map.) While in High School, she played a saxophone in the concert and jazz band, was the majorette for the marching band and Homecoming Queen, a member of the National Honor Society and the Student Council. She went on to the University of Iowa and then moved to Long Beach, CA. Finding that there were limited job prospects for a French major in Southern California, Ms. Heffran went to work in the accounting department of an oil company and took classes at Long Beach City College to develop and improve those skills. Finding that was crushingly boring, she began her career in the legal field, working in transaction, corporate, banking, personal injury, insurance defense and civil litigation before, to her delight, stumbling upon the Holy Grail of all legal practice areas, Workers’ Compensation. Ms Heffran completed the necessary coursework for, and holds, a Paralegal Certification from California State University Monterey Bay. At our office she negotiates liens, attends Lien Conferences and Lien Trials, prepares Pre-Trial Conference Statements, drafts, under the direction of the handling attorney, Trial Briefs, objects to and prepares Declarations of Readiness to Proceed, assists with legal research and serves as a client contact point. When she isn’t at the office having fun with her paralegal duties, she says that as a distant second, she can be found camping and fishing with her family.
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