About Robert J.
Robert J. Hills earned his law degree from Western Michigan University Cooley Law School in 2010 after completing undergraduate studies in commerce at DePaul University in 2005. He moved from classroom to courtroom quickly. His early training included a federal law clerkship at the U.S. Department of Transportation in 2010, a position that introduced him to federal practice and agency work.
After his clerkship he joined Johnson, Bunce & Noble, P.C., where he served as a lawyer and later as a shareholder beginning in 2010. That stint combined private practice responsibilities with courtroom appearances and firm-side management. He accepted an expanded role in 2013 when he joined the CJA Panel for the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois, taking on appointed federal defense matters while continuing his private work.
Hills moved to Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP in 2017, bringing his litigation experience to a larger firm setting. In 2020 he became a partner at Westervelt, Johnson, Nicholl & Keller, LLC, where he shifted into a leadership role and took on a broader caseload. Across these positions he has handled matters that reach beyond state court. He is admitted to practice in Illinois and is admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court and the Seventh Circuit, which shapes the range of appellate and federal filings he can undertake.
Outside the office he has been active in legal and community organizations. He has been a member of the Peoria County Bar Association and the Illinois State Bar Association since 2010, and he joined the Abraham Lincoln Inn of the American Inns of Court in Peoria in 2014. He has also served in several volunteer and board roles with Heart of Illinois United Way, including positions on the board and leadership roles focused on generation engagement and marketing and communications between 2013 and 2020. He served on the board of the Itoo Society from 2015 to 2016.
Hills’ background spans clerking, private firm practice and appointed federal work. He has experience in trial and appellate settings and in handling cases that arise in both state and federal forums. That mix informs his approach to case strategy and client counsel. He practices at Westervelt, Johnson, Nicholl & Keller, LLC, handling matters in Illinois and in federal courts, including cases before the Seventh Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court.
