Phylicia H. Hill*

Phylicia H. Hill serves as Counsel with the Criminal Justice Project.

Before joining the Lawyers Committee, Ms. Hill was a Senior Trial Attorney and Gideon’s Promise Fellow at the Office of the Public Defender in Montgomery, Alabama. There, she represented indigent criminal defendants through the various stages of criminal litigation. Her practice was built on the principle of Holistic Defense: a client-centered, community-oriented approach to criminal defense representation. In addition to legal issues, Ms. Hill focused on the social and economic needs of her clients- including homelessness, access to mental health treatment, and job seeking assistance – to ensure that once the criminal case was resolved, clients had access to adequate resources and services to decrease recidivism. Ms. Hill previously interned at the Lawyers Committee for the Community Development Project (now, Fair Housing and Community Development Project) and at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia in the Trial Division.

Ms. Hill is a graduate of The George Washington Law School, where she received the Jeanette A. Michael Memorial Scholarship. She was a member of the Federal Circuit Bar Journal, the Student Bar Association, and the Black Law Student Association.

She earned a Masters of Community Planning, focusing on Economic Development, from Auburn University, where she was the recipient of the Arch R. Winter Fund for Excellence in Community Planning Scholarship. Prior to attending graduate school, she taught elementary school in Clarksdale, Mississippi through Teach for America. She is a summa cum laude graduate of Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts degrees in English Literature and Political Science.

Bar Admissions: Admitted in Alabama only. Practice limited to matters before federal courts.

Court Admissions: Admitted to the Supreme Court of the United States and the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.