Laura Hills is an adjunct clinical assistant professor of law in the International Transactions Clinic at Michigan Law and founding partner of Hills Stern & Morley LLP (HSM) in Washington, DC.
Before founding HSM, Hills spent 10 years at Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the predecessor agency to US International Development Finance Corporation, including as associate general counsel for finance. In that position, she served as chief counsel to the agency for all matters involving the finance program. During that period, she acted both as OPIC’s lead counsel on a wide range of projects, including major infrastructure, and she supervised line attorneys in connection with a portfolio of project-finance transactions in excess of $2 billion. Transactions included the repowering and expansion of a 980-megawatt cogeneration power generation facility in Colombia, the expansion of a 235-megawatt power generation facility in Guatemala, and the operation and development of a 14-megawatt run-of-river hydroelectric generation facility in Guatemala.
Following her tenure at OPIC, Hills created HSM, a boutique law firm for investors looking to enter or expand in developing country markets in which she helps them efficiently access those bilateral and multilateral resources created to support investment. In the years since HSM’s founding, Hills has continued to work on projects throughout the developing world and in emerging commercial markets.
After finishing her graduate studies, Hills worked as a foreign associate in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She then worked at Patton, Boggs & Blow (now Squire Patton Boggs), before joining OPIC. From 2003 to 2009, she held an appointment as adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center, where she taught International Project Finance.