The Huntington Beach and Westlake Village Lawyers at McMillion & Hirtensteiner, LLP are ready to help you with just about any type of legal issues you or your business may face in California. Our Huntington Beach and Westlake Village Attorneys represent a myriad of clients from all over the State. Our lawyers, with offices in Los Angeles County and Orange County, are equipped with the latest technology, making the geographic location of our clients in California almost irrelevant. With handhelds, laptops, and the latest in legal technology, we effectively represent clients, large and small, across Los Angeles County, Orange County, and the rest of California.

SYLVIA HAVENS, Esq.

Sylvia Havens is a graduate of Southwestern University School of Law (J.D. 1988) and was ranked 18th in her class. She was a two-time merit scholar (1987 and 1988), Designated Southwestern Dean's Scholar and received an invitational entry to The Dean's List. During law school, Ms. Havens attended the Institute on International & Comparative Law in Paris, France through which she received diplomas in 1986 and again in 1987. She received her undergraduate degree from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey (B.A. 1984), majoring in English and History, with a Minor in French and a certificate in Women's Studies. She was a Junior Year Abroad participant, attending the Institute de Sorbonne and the Universitie de Tours in France. Also as an undergraduate, Ms. Havens was a two-time merit scholar (1982 and 1983), History honors member of Phi Alpha Theta, and Honors degree graduate in English.

For over a decade, Ms. Havens was a Certified Specialist, Appellate Law by the State Bar of California, Board of Legal Specialization (from 2005 to 2020). Ms. Havens has written over 50 appellate briefs and argued more than 20 cases before appellate courts at the state and federal level. Ms. Havens has written briefs resulting in published opinions, notably: Benay v. Warner Bros. Entm't, Inc., 607 F.3d 620 (9th Cir.2010); Brescia v. Angelin, 172 Cal.App.4th 133 (2009); Capri v. L.A. Fitness International, LLC, 136 Cal.App.4th 1078 (2006); Grosso v. Miramax Film Corp., 383 F.3d 965 (9th Cir.2004); and People ex rel. Allstate Ins. Co. v. Weitzman, 107 Cal.App.4th 534 (2003).

Ms. Havens has achieved the AV Preeminent® rating from Martindale-Hubbell®, the highest rating of professional excellence earned through a strenuous Peer Review Rating process. As described by Martindale-Hubbell®, “AV Preeminent® is a significant rating accomplishment - a testament to the fact that a lawyer's peers rank him or her at the highest level of professional excellence.”

Ms. Havens also was named to the Bar Register of Preeminent Women Lawyers (2013 edition). In 2012, Ms. Havens was named to the elite list of Southern California Super Lawyers. Southern California Super Lawyers® annually lists the top five-percent of lawyers practicing in Los Angeles and Orange Counties.

Ms. Havens has served as a member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association Appellate Courts Section (beginning in 1994 when it was a committee) and served on the Appellate Judicial Evaluation Committee. She also has served on the Los Angeles County Bar Association Amicus Briefs Committee and as an appointed panel member for the California Appellate Project from which the Second District Court of Appeal selects appellate attorneys to represent indigent clients.

Ms. Havens is a published author of, for example, The Motion for New Trial—A Final Opportunity to Clean up the Record, Appellate Tips for Trial Lawyers, Volume II, Number 3, an E-Publication of Los Angeles County Bar Association, December 2009 and author for James Publishing Company. Ms. Havens is also a frequent lecturer in areas such as Electronic Filing at the Ninth Circuit; Business and Professions Code section 17200, Proposition 64 and Class Actions; The Small Claims Trial; U.S. Supreme Court Tidbits; and How to Present a Winning Appellate Argument.

Ms. Havens has enjoyed volunteer work, such as assisting the Volunteer Lawyers Project as a volunteer Family Law attorney, or presiding over small claims matters as a judge pro tempore for the Los Angeles Judicial District Program. She also has been a panel member of the Los Angeles County Volunteer Arbitrators Program through which she presided over a variety of arbitrations.

Ms. Havens has decades of experience in handling a wide variety of cases, from motor vehicle accident to public entity liability to employment law and real estate litigation. She has taken hundreds of depositions, arbitrated 50 or more matters, taken cases to jury and bench trials and defended cases on appeal.