Mara Verheyden-Hilliard is Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF), where she also directs its project, the Center for Protest Law & Litigation. As a civil rights and constitutional rights litigator, Mara focuses on complex trial and appellate litigation, particularly concentrated in the areas of free speech, assembly, and other protected First Amendment activity and its intersection with Fourth Amendment rights. Her work is grounded in partnership with the activists and communities she serves. During her more than 25 years of practice, Mara has represented numerous political activists and organizations involved in the environmental, racial, and social justice movements, extending from grassroots community members to well-known personalities and activists. Litigating constitutional rights cases nationwide, including being certified as lead class counsel, Mara has won landmark changes in law and police practices in the handling of free speech activities, as well as securing tens of millions of dollars in damages for persons and organizations who have suffered deprivation of fundamental rights. Mara received her B.A. from Hampshire College and her J.D. from Columbia University Law School.