Spotlight Member Firm: Hill Hill Cart (Montgomery, AL)
By Susan Koval, Nemeth Law, P.C., Detroit, Michigan
Hill Hill Carter is a full-service firm capable of serving any legal need one may encounter. In fact, most clients who come to the firm with a specific legal concern end up as lifelong clients, utilizing the full range of services from estate, tax and business planning to all manners of complex litigation. The firm provides legal advice and representation to public and private entities in a wide range of practice areas, including employment and constitutional matters, business litigation, aviation, trucking liability, real estate, insurance defense, mass tort litigation and antitrust litigation.
With offices in Montgomery, Alabama and Louisville, Kentucky, the firm serves as counsel for regional, national and international companies. Although the size of the firm and the complexity of its practice have increased over the years, the firm’s dedication to legal excellence, integrity, and the welfare of its clients remains unchanged.
1. When was the firm founded and who are the firm’s founders?
In 1924, on the corner of Washington and Perry streets in historic downtown Montgomery, a young law school graduate named Thomas B. Hill, Jr. began his own practice in a building with no air conditioning. In 1931, his brother William Inge Hill joined the practice, setting the wheels in motion for what would become one of Montgomery’s most highly regarded legal institutions.
To this day, a desire to help people who have found themselves thrust into the overwhelming labyrinth of the legal system is still at the heart of what drives Hill Hill Carter. The firm’s attorneys are dedicated to serving the best interest of the client, whatever that course of action may be.
2. Who are the firm’s current leaders and how would you describe the firm’s culture and personality?
The firm is run by a three-person management committee. However, the firm has a very unique open-door management philosophy. The members of the firm are truly family. Whether the firm members are pushing through a long business meeting, prepping for trial or showering a new Hill Hill Carter baby, the members enjoy and rely on the fellowship of the firm. The firm takes pride in investing in the community with firm members serving on community, church and civic boards all over the Montgomery area. For example, several firm members serve on local YMCA boards and the Montgomery Education Foundation which aims to support public education in our community. Recently, the firm learned of a newly opened school for under-privileged boys located just blocks away in downtown Montgomery. The firm was so impressed by the work of this fledgling school and its lofty purpose, it hosted a large event so others in the business and legal community could learn about the school.
3. What makes the Hill Hill Carter team so special?
Beyond being great lawyers, Hill Hill Carter is proud of the character of our firm. Attorneys choose to work at Hill Hill Carter because of the diverse and challenging nature of our practices and the respect given to the work/life balance all professionals face. Our attorneys bring to the firm strong commitments to client relationships based on superior analytical and reasoning skills and the highest legal and ethical standards. Based on the belief that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, the firm makes a direct effort to sponsor open learning opportunities for clients to help avoid conflict and litigation, and to help building trusting business relationships that can be counted on when litigation cannot be avoided.
4. What are the firm’s significant areas of practice?
Hill Hill Carter offers a full range of legal services from business planning to complex litigation. Our practice concentrates on litigation defense and business law across a wide range of specializations, including commercial and corporate planning, mergers & acquisitions, real estate, tax and estate planning, employment law, civil rights litigation, mass tort litigation and antitrust litigation.
5. How did your firm become involved in NAMWOLF? Why did you join?
For much of its history, Hill Hill Carter was a male-dominated firm. Nevertheless, despite that male power structure, the leadership of the firm took every opportunity to attract great talent—even when they did not look like the founders of the firm! The number of women joining and even leading the firm has exploded. When an accomplished female lawyer joined the firm, she shared the concept and philosophy of NAMWOLF with Hill Hill Carter. After much research and investigation, the firm decided NAMWOLF was an organization that advocated for and celebrated diversity in the legal profession in a way the firm understood and appreciated.
6. Why is diversity important to your firm?
Hill Hill Carter is a proud member of the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC). However, the firm’s philosophy of diversity has a much broader reach. The members of Hill Hill Carter truly believe the best results for any client comes with collaborative strategic analysis from creative minds that think, see, perceive and process information in a variety of ways based on their varied backgrounds.
7. What has been your involvement with NAMWOLF? For how long?
Hill Hill Carter was recently approved by NAMWOLF. We are the only NAMWOLF Alabama firm. Three members of the firm participated in the 2015 NAMWOLF Conference in Los Angeles and were beyond impressed with the caliber of lawyers, the kindness and warmth provided them and the overall excitement of the organization’s energy toward celebrating and increasing diversity in legal/business relationships. The firm is making big plans for the NAMWOLF meeting in February and might even bring more folks than the “three girls from Alabama.”