Natalie Heim focuses her practice on high-stakes litigation including complex commercial matters, intellectual property, and trade secret disputes. She has experience litigating in state and federal courts, and in arbitration. Natalie also maintains an active pro bono practice focused on civil rights. Prior to joining Keker, Van Nest & Peters, Natalie served as a law clerk to Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. She also served as an associate for an Am Law Top 5 law firm, where she advised businesses on compliance with state privacy laws, assisted in regulatory clearance of corporate mergers, and helped successfully litigate several cases.
Natalie earned her J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law and earned dual B.S. degrees in telecommunications and psychology from the University of Florida.
We serve as co-counsel with the ACLU foundations of California in a putative class action challenging unlawful immigration enforcement practices by the U.S. Border Patrol in the Eastern District of California. The lawsuit alleges that Border Patrol has engaged in a practice of unlawfully stopping and arresting long-term county residents based on skin color and appearance and then coercing them to accept deportation without due process. In April 2025, we obtained a preliminary injunction from the district court requiring federal agents to comply with constitutional and statutory standards of reasonable suspicion and probable cause when making stops and arrests within the district.
Yesterday, a federal district court ruled that the U.S. Border Patrol violated a prior court order during a July 2025 immigration operation in Sacramento, finding that agents conducted stops without reasonable suspicion and failed to properly document their actions. The court granted a motion to enforce a preliminary injunction in United Farm Workers v. Noem, reinforcing constitutional limits on Border Patrol operations in California’s Eastern District. Read more
A federal judge ruled that the U.S. Border Patrol violated a court order during a July 2025 operation at a Sacramento Home Depot, finding that agents unlawfully detained 11 day laborers without reasonable suspicion, Law360 reported. Read more
A federal judge has refused to halt litigation challenging U.S. Border Patrol enforcement tactics in California’s Central Valley, allowing the case to proceed despite the government’s pending appeal. The lawsuit alleges that Border Patrol agents engaged in unconstitutional stops and arrests during immigration enforcement operations far from the border, as reported in the Daily Journal. Read more