​​​​​As Chair of the D.C. Rules Committee and a member of the ABA’s Ethics and Professional Responsibility Committee, Hilary Gerzhoy is a leading legal ethics lawyer who serves as Vice Chair of HWG’s Legal Ethics and Malpractice group.

Legal Ethics and Malpractice

Hilary represents lawyers, law firms, legal tech companies, and in-house counsel navigating the full range of legal ethics matters. She represents lawyers in disciplinary investigations, legal malpractice litigation, fee disputes, character and fitness proceedings, unauthorized practice of law (UPL) inquiries, and USPTO Office of Enrollment and Discipline (OED) cases. Hilary has extensive experience advising law firms and lawyers on ethics issues related to lateral moves. She serves as outside general counsel to law firms across the country providing guidance on risk management, conflicts and disqualification issues, and law firm formations and dissolutions. She serves as an expert witness on legal ethics and professional responsibility matters, including in fee dispute and legal malpractice litigation.

Hilary is the Chair of the D.C. Bar Rules of Professional Conduct Review Committee, a member of the ABA’s Ethics and Professional Responsibility Committee, and a member of the ABA’s Ethics Series Advisory Board. She is an adjunct law professor at the Georgetown University Law Center where she teaches legal ethics, and she recently completed a term on Law360′s Legal Ethics Editorial Advisory Board. Hilary serves on the D.C. Circuit’s Advisory Committee on Admissions and Grievances, ​​a Committee appointed by the Judges of the D.C. Circuit.

Hilary has published more than forty articles on developments in legal ethics and her work has been featured in the Chicago Tribune, Bloomberg Law, Law360, the Washington Lawyer, and LexisNexis. She is regularly quoted as a legal ethics ​​leader in publications including The National Law Journal, Law.com, Bloomberg, and Law360. Hilary teaches courses on legal ethics and malpractice at bar associations and law schools across the country and is a regular speaker at the D.C. Bar and the American Bar Association.

White-Collar Criminal Defense

In her white-collar practice, Hilary represents ​​companies and individuals facing investigations and litigation involving the Department of Justice, the Federal Communications Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and state attorneys general. Chambers USA reported that clients describe Hilary as “incredibly adept at identifying solutions” and “incredibly knowledgeable” and she has been repeatedly recognized by Best Lawyers, Super Lawyers, Chambers, and Lawdragon. She is AV Peer Review rated by Martindale-Hubbell with a 5.0 out of 5.0 rating, Highest Level of Professional Excellence.

Before entering private practice, Hilary clerked for the Honorable Kermit V. Lipez of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. She received her J.D. from the University of California Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall), where she served as Online Editor of the California Law Review and a teaching assistant for the Legal Research and Writing Program, and where she received the Prosser Award for Written and Oral Advocacy and Legal Ethics. She received her B.A. from the University of Chicago, graduating Phi Beta Kappa.