Robert C Hilliard (attorney)

Early life

Hilliard grew up in Newton, Texas.

He attended St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas, where he enrolled on a tennis scholarship, graduating summa cum laude with a bachelor's degree in English in 1980. While at St. Edwards, Hilliard was a four-year letterman in tennis and St. Edward's Athlete of the Year for 1979–1980. In 1989, Hilliard was inducted into the St. Edward's Athletics Hall of Fame. He went on to attend St. Mary's University School of Law, in San Antonio, Texas, graduating with honors in 1983.

Career

In 1986, Hilliard founded the law firm of Hilliard Muñoz Gonzales, LLP, in Corpus Christi, Texas.

In 2012, Hilliard co-founded Hilliard & Shadowen, LLP, in Austin, Texas, a law firm that engages in antitrust and civil rights litigation.

In 2015, he obtained an order from a Newton County judge granting a restraining order against Aetna Insurance, preventing the insurance company from denying life-saving cancer treatment for his client, Bobby Allen Bean.

Motor vehicle lawsuits

In 2010, Hilliard represented Koua Fong Lee, a Hmong immigrant, who was wrongfully convicted of vehicular homicide after he was involved in an accident. His Toyota Camry, now recalled, had experienced sudden unintended acceleration and causing the death or injury of five people in June 2006. Koua, after serving 2.5 years of a 8 year sentence, was released after the end of a week-long hearing.

On August 15, 2014, Hilliard was appointed, by Federal Judge Jesse Furman of the Southern District of New York, as co-lead counsel in the National General Motors (GM) ignition switch litigation, where he has primary responsibility for all death and injury cases. Hilliard represents 326 clients with liability claims, of which 53 involved a fatality. On May 2, 2014, Hilliard participated in a discussion session with Kenneth Feinberg who represented GM. On June 30, 2014, Feinberg announced a plan to compensate the victims of the defect.

In 2014, Hilliard defended and exonerated a woman previously convicted in the death of her boyfriend in an accident with ties to GM's ignition switch. In August 2015, he successfully overturned the criminal conviction of another woman involved in an ignition switch incident.

In November 2015, Hilliard was also retained by Bexar and Nueces counties in Texas, as part of a team to file environmental enforcement actions against Volkswagen in regard to EPA violations.

Hernández vs. Mesa

Hilliard represents Sergio Hernández, a 15-year-old who died as a result of a 2010 shooting and Guillermo Arevalo Pedraza the victim of a 2012 killing of another Mexican citizen, both by US Border Patrol agents. The cases had sparked a confrontation between former Mexican President Felipe Calderón and former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

A federal judge had initially dismissed by the Hernández family's case. However, that decision was overturned by a panel of judges in the Fifth Circuit, allowing that a Mexican national, standing in Mexico, possesses Fourth Amendment constitutional rights that allow him to sue a United States Border Patrol Agent for excessive use of force across the US border. The Fifth Circuit granted rehearing en banc of the panel’s decision. Oral arguments were held on Jan. 21, 2015, and the court decided to vacate the panel's decision.

On October 11, 2016, the United States Supreme Court granted Hilliard's petition for a writ of certiorari to determine if a Mexican citizen standing in Mexico has protections against being wrongly shot by a border patrol agent standing in the United States. Hilliard presented oral arguments to the Court on behalf of the Hernandez family on February 21, 2017. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed the Fifth Circuit's decision and remanded the case.

Major League Baseball

Hilliard filed a lawsuit against Major League Baseball urging MLB to expand netting at ballparks. The suit cites numerous injuries at ballparks, but was filed before a September 2017 incident that prompted MLB players to demand netting be increased at stadiums. Of the September 2017 incident, Twins player Brian Dozier stated: "Every stadium needs to have nets. That's it. I don't care about the damn view of a fan or what. It's all about safety. I still have a knot in my stomach. I don't know if you guys saw it, but I hope the kid's OK. We need nets. Or don't put kids down there."

Philanthropy

In May 2017, Hilliard and his wife, Catherine Tobin, donated $1 million to Incarnate Word Academy in Corpus Christi, Texas for a new, 14,000-square-foot elementary level Montessori building.