HILO and Partner Organizations

We are in a critical moment. There is an extraordinary pool of attorneys leaving (or being pushed out of) government, while many others in law firms, nonprofits, and public defender offices are exploring the path of launching their own practices. Many seek to provide direct legal services to underserved communities or take on complex civil and civil rights litigation to fill the growing vacuum left by the retreat of federal enforcement.

Our goal is to connect this emerging supply of public interest attorneys with the overwhelming and unmet demand for legal representation. We’ll do this by supporting the development of solo and small-firm practices rooted in justice-focused work.

Key to this project is creating partnerships with mission-aligned law firms, nonprofits, and other organizations that are interested in co-counsel op- portunities and/or providing contract or short-term projects as our practi- tioners get their practices off the ground.

The Role of Partner Organizations

We are building partnerships with law firms, nonprofits, advocacy groups, and other mission-aligned institutions that can:

  • Refer cases to attorneys in the HILO network

  • Collaborate on co-counsel or contract work

  • Mentor and support new practitioners

  • Engage in shared strategy, litigation, or advocacy

By partnering with solo and small-firm attorneys, your organization can expand its capacity without the overhead of traditional hiring—while also investing in a new generation of movement-aligned lawyers.

Benefits to Partner Organizations

The organizations and firms that exist to provide individual or class repre- sentation to vulnerable or marginalized people cannot meet the rapidly es- calating needs for such representation. Scaling up through hiring to meet these needs is challenging, given the resources required to hire and grow.

Organizations and firms can instead create new capacity by working with experienced and talented solo attorneys, many of whom are coming out of years of government practice in consumer law, civil rights, immigration, and other areas.

Our Hub will facilitate relationships between partners and solo attorneys in our Network, allowing organizations and firms to refer potential clients, provide hourly or contingency contract work on ongoing complex cases, and/or co-counsel on new cases.

The Hub can also serve as a clearinghouse for coordination within and across issue areas, so that public interest lawyers across sectors can en- gage in shared strategies, as well as to ensure there is connection between the network and other organizations and law firms engaged in similar work.

These partnerships will enable solo and small-firm practitioners to grow their practices and take on more public interest work on their own, even as they continue to coordinate and work with partners, increasing the overall capacity to serve the people who need it.