Peggy A. Whipple is admitted to practice before the state and federal courts in Missouri, Tennessee and Ohio, the United States Courts of Appeals for the Sixth and Eighth Circuits, and the Supreme Court of the United States of America.  Peggy’s civil litigation practice has included products liability defense, mass tort litigation including consolidations and class actions, ecclesiastical law and utility and environmental regulation and enforcement.  Her appellate practice has also included the prosecution and defense of extraordinary writ actions.

Peggy was born and raised in Columbia, Missouri.  She graduated cum laude from the University of Toledo Law School in 1985, serving as a member of both its Law Review and its National Moot Court Team.  Upon graduation, she joined the Toledo, Ohio law firm of Fuller & Henry.  In 1992, she joined the Knoxville, Tennessee law firm of Baker, Worthington, Crossley, Stansberry & Woolf, and became a partner in that firm before becoming one of the founding partners of Woolf, McClane, Bright, Allen & Carpenter, also of Knoxville, Tennessee.

Peggy, her husband Steve, and their children Jacqueline and Eric chose to return to Missouri and their extended family, and in 2006 Peggy joined the Missouri Public Service Commission as its Chief Counsel for Litigation.  Peggy defended the Commission’s orders in Missouri appellate courts, and pursued litigation in state and federal courts on behalf of the Commission or its Commissioners, including multi-district litigation in federal court in California to investigate violations of Missouri’s privacy laws regarding telephone communications.  In 2009, Peggy joined the Missouri Attorney General’s Office as its Deputy Chief of Litigation, and soon won over $25 million to benefit Missouri state employees’ deferred compensation fund. Peggy pursued Missouri’s full share of the annual Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement payments by presenting the state’s case in the largest arbitration ever convened in United States legal history, and built the state’s case for the damages to its natural resources caused by the underground fire burning at the Bridgeton Landfill in St. Louis County.  Peggy joined Healy Law Offices, LLC in February, 2017.

Healy Law Offices, LLC proudly welcomes Heather H. Starnes to the firm’s new Little Rock office.

As the former Manager of External Affairs and Regulatory Policy for the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), and in private practice as an attorney and consultant, Heather oversaw development of policy through the SPP stakeholder process, including revisions to the FERC-jurisdictional tariff and state regulatory processes. During her tenure as an attorney and consultant in private practice she has provided guidance to a broad spectrum of energy clients, including municipals, cooperatives, joint action agencies, transmission companies and vertically integrated utilities.

Heather has more than 20 years of experience, primarily in the areas of energy, utilities, municipal and administrative law. She also has extensive experience in state and federal regulatory and legislative processes.

“The addition of Heather to our new Little Rock office, with her expansive knowledge of the energy and utilities industries in both SPP and MISO, her understanding of the political processes in those RTOs, as well as her strong history with public power, is exciting,” Doug Healy, founder of Healy Law Offices , said.

Heather received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hendrix College and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Arkansas-Little Rock School of Law. While in law school, she served as a clerk for the Arkansas Municipal League, working with Arkansas municipals to address legal and regulatory issues and developing training programs for city officials. She lives in Little Rock with her twins, Ken and Sarah.

Heather can be reached by telephone either at her direct line of (501) 712-2920 or by email at heather@healylawoffices.com.