Whitney has consistently been recognized as one of North Carolina’s top government relations attorneys by Super Lawyers Magazine, Best Lawyers, and through her work as President of the North Carolina Professional Lobbyists Association. She represents clients before the North Carolina General Assembly, where for nearly 15 years she has drafted, enacted, amended, and opposed legislation in accordance with client needs.  She serves as Ward and Smith’s Raleigh office Geographic Team Co-Leader and heads the firm’s state legislative efforts.  In 2017, Whitney was named to the Triangle Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 list and was invited to represent the state of North Carolina in the National League of Women Lobbyists in 2022. In 2024, she served as President of the North Carolina Professional Lobbyists Association. 

Whitney has experience advocating on behalf of Fortune 100 companies, statewide professional associations, manufacturers, the hospitality industry, environmental service providers, financial institutions, nonprofits and local governments from the mountains to the coast. She has a knack for the state budget appropriations process and a long track record of securing appropriations for clients. She enjoys shaping state policy and has had legislation introduced and enacted pertaining to a wide range of issues, including business liability, internet privacy and security laws, virtual currency, higher education, criminal justice, state and local pension system reforms, vehicle registration, transportation funding, special elections, alcoholic beverage laws, state procurement of information technology, local government purchasing requirements and 911 dispatch center redundancy. She also counsels and represents clients before government bodies in economic development matters.

Whitney is licensed to practice patent law before the United States Patent and Trademark Office, developing a love for science and intellectual property at a young age as she watched her father accumulate nearly forty U.S. and international patents in immunodiagnostics and other pharmaceutical technologies. She is also a member of the firm’s Economic Development Practice Group and Name Image Likeness Practice Group.