Emily M. Hills is a senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Hawai‘i, where she works to defend civil rights and civil liberties through litigation and community advocacy. Among the issues she focuses on are LGBTQ+ rights, gender equity, reproductive freedom, prisoner’s rights, the de-criminalization of poverty, police misconduct, bail reform, mass incarceration, and freedom of expression.
Before joining the ACLU of Hawai‘i, Emily worked as a senior staff attorney in the Family Law department at the Legal Aid Society of Hawai‘i (LASH) and as a public defender in Colorado. At LASH, Emily advocated on behalf of children involved in child welfare cases and represented clients in family law cases involving domestic violence. In 2022, Emily argued In re J.H. before the Hawai‘i Supreme Court, advancing the due process rights of children during child welfare proceedings.
As a public defender in Colorado, Emily defended clients charged with a range of criminal offenses, from driving under the influence to homicide. Her experience as a public defender has informed her advocacy at the ACLU of Hawai‘i on matters of criminal justice reform.
Emily holds a J.D. from New York University School of Law and a B.A. in English from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. In 2019, she clerked for the Honorable Mark J. Bennett on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and in 2019-2020, she clerked for Chief Justice Mark E. Recktenwald on the Hawai‘i Supreme Court.
In her free time, Emily enjoys reading speculative fiction and spending time with her family.