Nicole Austin-Hillery
Director and Counsel, DC Office
Nicole Austin-Hillery currently serves as the Director and Counsel of The Brennan Center’s new Washington, DC
office. Prior to joining The Brennan Center, Ms. Austin-Hillery
practiced with the law firm of Mehri
& Skalet, PLLC where she focused primarily on the firm's civil rights
employment litigation practice. Ms. Austin-Hillery worked on all aspects of
complex employment class action litigation and outreach to the larger
public-interest civil rights community.
Her experience as a litigator included work on a variety of
employment matters focused on race and gender including employment negotiations,
pre-filing settlements focused on both individual and programmatic relief as
well as work with federal trial courts.
Prior to joining Mehri & Skalet, Ms. Austin-Hillery was
the George N. Lindsay Civil Rights Law Fellow at the national office of the
Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in Washington, D.C.
where she worked on public housing litigation as well as policy and community
development issues. During her fellowship, Ms. Austin-Hillery was a member of
the Lawyers' Committee's delegation to the NGO Forum of the World Conference
Against Racism in Durban, South Africa.
Ms. Austin-Hillery is a 2000 graduate of the Howard
University School of Law in Washington,
D.C. where she was the recipient
of a Merit Scholarship, served as the Solicitations Editor of the Social
Justice Law Review and as the President of the Public Interest Law Society. Ms.
Austin-Hillery is also a graduate of Carnegie
Mellon University
where she received her B.A. in Applied History.
Ms. Austin-Hillery has been involved in both the civil
rights and policy communities for several years. Prior to attending law school,
Ms. Austin-Hillery was the Research Director in the Washington, D.C.
Office of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. She also served as
Research Analyst to the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus in the
Pennsylvania House of Representatives and as a Research Assistant to the
Democratic Caucus. She also worked as a
legislative associate with the state government relations consulting firm
Stateside Associates in Arlington,
Virginia.
Ms. Austin-Hillery also dedicates substantial time to
non-profit and community service endeavors.
She served a 2-year appointment as the Board President of Suited for
Change, a non-profit organization that provides professional attire and
work-skills training to low-income women in the Greater Washington Metropolitan
Area. She currently holds a second 2-year appointment on the Pro Bono Committee
of the Board of Governors of the District of Columbia Bar Association. Ms. Austin-Hillery
is also a Board member and the 2004-2005 President of the Washington Council of
Lawyers, the only voluntary bar association in the District of Columbia with a focus on
promoting public interest pro bono advocacy. Additionally, Ms. Austin-Hillery
is member of the Carnegie Mellon Admissions Council and a former volunteer and
current Board member of the Sibanye Mentor Program.
Ms. Austin-Hillery was a 2006-2007 Wasserstein Public
Interest Fellow at Harvard
Law School
and received a leadership recognition award from the Washington Council of
Lawyers.
