Leaders of the litigation boutique that has represented Eric Swalwell and Kilmar Abrego Garcia said taking on matters contentious with the Trump administration have been worth the risk.
New York-founded Hecker Fink is devoting about a third of its workload to what the firm calls “public interest” matters. The cases show how the boutique is satiating clients’ appetite for traditional public interest cases as many Big Law firms strive to protect their corporate interests.
“It’s a little bit of a virtuous circle,” name partner Sean Hecker said in an interview. “It does generate a lot of paying work when we do those cases and get attention for doing them.”
Hecker Fink represented Swalwell, a California Democrat who plans to resign from his congressional seat following a series of sexual assault allegations. The firm represented Swalwell in his suit against Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte, claiming Pulte abused his power to retaliate against one of the president’s political opponents. The case was dismissed in March.
The firm representing immigrant Garcia, who was deported to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador in March 2025 despite a court order barring his removal to that country. It’s also representing a group of inmates suing the administration over their placement in a supermax prison facility after former President Joe Biden commuted their death sentences at the end of this term.
The administration’s attacks on higher education institutions has also driven business for the firm’s education practice. The firm’s university client roster has included Columbia University, New York University, and Brown University. Columbia hired the boutique in May 2024 to defend it in a Jewish student’s lawsuit over the school’s handling of pro-Palestine protests on campus.
The number of university clients and lawyers working on their cases at the firm has increased dramatically in the last year and a half, Hecker said. The work includes commercial litigation and government investigations.
“I’d be surprised if there are many firms that have more of that work than we do right now,” he said.
Hecker Fink, which is approaching its 10th anniversary, has not attracted attention or sanctions from the Trump administration thus far nor received any private correspondence from it, the firm’s leaders said. Trump had sanctioned other law firms for hiring his perceived enemies and investigated others for their diversity efforts.
The ability to take these kinds of cases does involve some sacrifice, however. It has turned off some clients, who prefer to go with a safer choice, Hecker said.
“Everyone is here because they want to be at a firm that does those cases—even understanding that it will affect our economics, that we could be more profitable if all we were thinking about was profitability,” Hecker said.
In the Headlines
One of the firm’s most notable cases involving Trump was when it notched a rare win for client E. Jean Carroll in her defamation suit against Trump January 2024. One of Carroll’s litigators, previous name partner Roberta Kaplan, left June 2024 citing a desire to be at a smaller firm, changing the firm’s shingle to Hecker Fink.
Hecker said the transition after Kaplan’s departure was “certainly challenging.”
“Robbie was, by far, probably the most high profile partner that we had,” managing partner Julie Fink said. “But we’ve had a large group of partners who stayed together and continued the firm with all the same values. The work since then has grown, and the public interest work has grown.”
Hecker Fink recruited heavyweight partners including veteran Supreme Court advocate Jeffrey Fisher from O’Melveny & Myers earlier this year and Marshall Miller, former Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General at the Justice Department during the Biden administration last year.
The firm’s hiring over the last year reflects litigators’ increasing interest in practicing at nimble boutiques instead of Big Law firm litigation departments, Fink said.
The boutique now has 100 attorneys and uses both traditional billable hour and contingency fee structure. The bulk of the firm’s revenue comes from billable work, Hecker said.
Litigation groups splintering from Big Law has trended in the past year. A group of partners, Karen Dunn, Bill Isaacson and Jeannie Rhee, left Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison last year to start a litigation boutique. Veteran litigator Abbe Lowell launched Lowell & Associates after leaving Winston & Strawn. He is defending lawyer Mark Zaid in a case involving sanctions from the Trump administration.
Hecker Fink continues to build out its Los Angeles presence, which was established February 2025. Fink said the firm plans to add a few more associates to its California office. The new office was inspired by hires Mack Jenkins and Susan Har, who are based in Los Angeles.
As the firm approaches its 10th year, its founders are looking to maximize its use of artificial intelligence and strategic recruitment. Founders anticipate the firm being in at least half a dozen trials and arbitrations through the rest of this year.
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