A graduate of the University of California, Santa Cruz (B.A., 2001), and the University of California, Hastings College of the Law (J.D., 2005), Mr. Hillsman was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. He joined McGuinn, Hillsman & Palefsky in 2005 and specializes in maritime personal injury law and Federal Workers’ Compensation, including claims under the Jones Act, the Longshore Act, and the Defense Base Act. He is a member of the Maritime Law Association, the American Association for Justice, the California Association of Consumers, the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association, WILG, Alameda County Trial Lawyers Association, the United States Department of Labor’s West Coast Symposium Steering Committee and the Pacific Admiralty Seminar Steering Committee.
Mr. Hillsman is becoming a recognized authority on maritime tort law. He has served as a CLE speaker for the San Francisco Bar Association, presented at the NWLAA Tri-Annual Conference in Portland Oregon, spoke at the United States Department of Labor’s West Coast Symposiums II, III, IV, V and VI in San Francisco, lectured at Loyola University’s 2016 Longshore Conference in New Orleans and was selected as a Northern California Rising Star by Super Lawyers Magazine in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 and as a Super Lawyer in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024.