Phylicia Hill

Phylicia H. Hill is the Director of Impact Litigation at Legal Aid DC. In that role, she oversees the organization's Impact Litigation Project, which uses affirmative litigation to challenge unjust systems that marginalize low-income District residents. 

Prior to joining Legal Aid DC in 2023, Phylicia was Counsel in the Criminal Justice Project and Economic Justice Project at the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. While at Lawyers’ Committee, she brought litigation in state and federal courts challenging employment discrimination, racially biased policing practices and conditions of confinement for those incarcerated in state and federal detention facilities. She established and managed the Records Assistance Program, which provided pro bono legal assistance to seal, expunge or correct criminal records of individuals who were subject to discriminatory hiring practices of the U.S. Census Bureau. She also drafted and coordinated sign-on amicus briefs for three landmark cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Phylicia previously 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, Phylicia also 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.

Phylicia 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 was a Teach For America corps member and taught elementary school in Clarksdale, Mississippi. 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.