Risky Cases Lead to Top-Dollar Work for New York Boutique (2)

Leaders of litigation boutique Hecker Fink said its years of taking on matters opposite the government, including the Trump administration, have been worth the risk.

The New York-founded firm is devoting about a third of its workload to public interest matters. Hecker Fink has touted such work for years--one of its first cases was against neo-Nazis and white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017—and plans to keep emphasizing it as the firm approaches its 10th anniversary.

“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.”

The cases show how the boutique is satisfying the push from nonprofits, foundations and others for traditional public interest matters as many Big Law firms strive to protect their corporate interests. The firm’s cases also show it’s not afraid to take on allies of Donald Trump or issues that are dear to the president.

The firm is representing Kilmar Abrego 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 firm represented Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat who plans to resign from his congressional seat following a series of sexual assault allegations, in his suit against Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte. The suit, which claimed Pulte abused his power to retaliate against one of the president’s political opponents, was dismissed in March.

Hecker Fink 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.

Sean Hecker

Hecker Fink

The firm’s work against the US government goes long before Trump came to office, extending to prior Democratic administrations. “There are a chunk of folks who have been opposite the government on cases their whole career, and I’m among that group,” Hecker said.

The firm’s university client roster has included Columbia University and New York University. For NYU the firm won dismissal of a case seeking damages for alleged sex discrimination, and that same year Columbia hired the boutique to defend it in a Jewish student’s lawsuit over the school’s handling of pro-Palestine protests.

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.

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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 heavyweights 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.

They also include Amy Jeffries from Arnold & Porter, Damaris Hernandez from Cravath and Trisha Anderson from the Office of Legal Counsel. 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.

Julie Fink

Hecker Fink

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 Lowelllaunched 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.

The founders are also 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.