After graduating from Harvard Law School, Havian worked on CLIPI cases as a fellow at Hall and Phillips from 1981 to 1982. During his term, Havian assisted in the Sundance, Hancock, and other cases.
Havian went on to build a successful career in law, first as a civil litigator and then as a federal prosecutor in San Francisco. In 1994, though, when CLIPI co-founder and Phillips & Cohen partner, John Phillips, settled a major case in the then-emerging practice area of False Claims cases, Havian joined Phillips in representing whistleblowers in “qui tam” cases brought under the False Claims Act. Havian opened the San Francisco Phillips & Cohen office shortly after.
After 21 years at Phillips & Cohen, Havian continued to represent whistleblowers in False Claims Act, SEC, and IRS matters at Constantine Cannon LLP, where he served as a partner for 9 years.
Most recently, in March 2024, Havian became a founding partner at Whistleblower Partners LLP in San Francisco. He and his colleagues at Whistleblower Partners represent not only the whistleblowers, but also the defrauded state and local governments victimized in False Claims Act cases.
Havian has been widely recognized. After winning a $224 million whistleblower verdict, he was selected by the National Law Journal as one of the Top 10 “Winning” Attorneys in the nation in 2008. Two years later, after a string of additional whistleblower victories, California Lawyer Magazine named Havian a “California Lawyer of the Year.”
Havian has also mentored law students as an Adjunct Professor teaching a fraud seminar at Stanford Law School and Berkeley Law School, and more recently as a Wasserstein Fellow at Harvard advising law students on careers in public interest law.
