Hilary Gerzhoy, Vice Chair of HWG’s Legal Ethics and Malpractice group, focuses her practice on legal ethics, white collar defense, and complex civil litigation.

Legal Ethics and Malpractice

Hilary is Vice Chair of the firm’s Legal Ethics and Malpractice Group. She represents lawyers and firms in disciplinary investigations, prosecutions, and malpractice matters. She has represented lawyers in front of every disciplinary body at the state and federal level in D.C. and Maryland, before the Virginia State Bar, and before the USPTO’s Office of Enrollment and Discipline. She represents lawyers and firms in high stakes arbitrations and litigation. Hilary counsels lawyers regarding conflicts, advertising, fee disputes, the unauthorized practice of law, partner admissions, and law firm formations and dissolutions to avoid problems before they arise.

Hilary is the Vice Chair of the D.C. Bar Rules of Professional Conduct Review Committee, which proposes amendments to the D.C. Rules, and she a member of the ABA’s Ethics and Professional Responsibility Committee. In 2022, the Judges of the D.C. Circuit appointed her to serve as one of the six members on the D.C. Circuit’s Advisory Committee on Admissions and Grievances. Hilary is an adjunct law professor at the Georgetown University Law Center where she teaches legal ethics, and she serves on Law360‘s Legal Ethics Editorial Advisory Board. She has published more than thirty 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, and Law360. Hilary teaches courses on legal ethics and malpractice at bar associations and law schools across the country.

White-Collar Criminal Defense and Civil Litigation

Hilary represents clients through all stages of litigation, from the initial complaint through trial and appeal in state and federal courts and she represents companies and individuals in a range of white-collar criminal investigations. She has been recognized by Best Lawyers, Super Lawyers, 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.

As an active member of the legal community, Hilary currently serves on the Membership Committee of the District of Columbia Women’s Bar Association and is a Barrister at the William B. Bryant Inn of Court.

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. She received her B.A. from the University of Chicago, graduating Phi Beta Kappa.