As a teenager, William Hill ’85 worked on construction crews around Boston. Now, he’s putting construction law to work for those in need.

Long before William Hill set foot in a courtroom, he was setting footings. During summers in high school and again between college and law school, Hill earned his keep swinging hammers and hauling lumber on construction crews tackling residential and commercial projects in the Greater Boston area.

“There was something about getting a structure built that was very satisfying,” says Hill. A few years after law school, construction law seemed like an obvious choice. “Being a construction lawyer was probably safer than hanging off buildings.”

Today, Hill is co-chair of the construction practice group in the Boston office of Mintz, where he brings a boots-on-the-ground perspective to his work as a construction law expert. His practice includes construction and real estate disputes and transactions, as well as commercial and corporate litigation.

Hill’s métier inspired him to launch Building for Good (B4G), a pro bono construction law service “for those who build for the people who need help most.” The organization connects volunteer construction lawyers throughout the country with charities and nonprofit organizations to provide legal help with everything from building a food pantry to installing a new roof on a homeless shelter.

Hill came up with the idea for B4G when he was chairman of the ABA Forum on Construction Law, whose more than 5,900 members make it the largest network of construction lawyers in the United States. While ABA guidelines urge lawyers to offer 50 pro bono hours per year, “there wasn’t really a ready avenue for construction lawyers to do that,” says Hill. “The idea was that B4G could help charities and nonprofits spend their resources on their mission, not legal fees.”

To date, B4G has assisted in dozens of projects in California, Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. There are plans to expand nationally. “We’d like to get the word out, including to Northeastern alums who might sit on boards of organizations and know about a food bank or domestic violence shelter or animal shelter down the street that’s about to do a project,” Hill says.

With his colleagues at Mintz, Hill provided pro bono services to Cradles to Crayons, a national nonprofit that distributes free clothes and items like diapers and coats to impoverished and homeless children. B4G volunteer lawyers advised the Cradles to Crayons team on how to buy, renovate and equip a nearly 37,500-square-foot building in Newton to serve the region.

At first, some organizations are surprised at the offer of help, says Hill, who also supported the Greater Boston Food Bank in developing a facility next to the Southeast Expressway in the early 2000s. “People sometimes wonder, ‘Who does this for free?’” he adds. “Once they see the network and the lawyers, they understand, and the work gets done.”

Hill is also a leader in the conservation movement, having served on the board of directors and as past chairman of the Appalachian Mountain Club, which bestowed its distinguished service award on him in 2018. In addition, he’s served as chair of the conservation commission and trustee of the local land trust in his former hometown of Acton.

Some of his proudest work at Mintz includes helping General Electric with the cleanup of New York’s Hudson River, which for 30 years had been contaminated with carcinogenic polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), used for insulation and fire prevention in, for instance, household and electrical appliances. Hill advised on the dredging, removal and safe disposal of PCB-contaminated sediment, per a federal consent decree between the EPA and GE. He is now doing similar work for the company on Massachusetts’ affected section of the Housatonic River.

“You cannot go through Northeastern Law without understanding that public interest is very much part of the toolbox you use as a lawyer,” Hill says. “I am humbled by my classmates who have turned that education into their life’s work, really making a difference in our world. In my small way, I’ve tried to be faithful to that mission.”

You cannot go through Northeastern Law without understanding that public interest is very much part of the toolbox you use as a lawyer.

— William Hill ’85