Phillips Black

What Phillips Black does

Phillips Black is a nonprofit, public interest law practice founded in 2011 (originally as the Law Offices of John R. Mills) and reorganized under its current name in 2014. It provides post-conviction capital defense representation and federal habeas corpus litigation for indigent individuals sentenced to death, juvenile life without parole, or wrongfully convicted, with active engagements at the U.S. Supreme Court including the January 2025 summary reversal in Brenda Andrew and the March 2026 oral argument in Terry Pitchford. The organization operates as a "chambers" model — adapting the English bar tradition — in which independent practitioners share administrative infrastructure, costs, and supervision while handling complex, multi-jurisdictional capital cases, an arrangement designed to distribute risk and prevent institutional bloat.

The practice is supported by an empirical research and scholarship program covering juvenile life without parole (JLWOP) sentencing reform and Finley "no-merit" letters, the latter co-authored with the Harvard Law Review and released as a report in February 2026. A clinical education pipeline runs through six law schools (Washington University, Saint Louis University, UC Berkeley, Harvard Law, UC Law San Francisco, and University of Idaho), supplying a continuous flow of supervised fellows and staff attorneys. Phillips Black has 11–50 personnel distributed across principal offices in New York, Oakland, Philadelphia, and St. Louis, with additional practitioners admitted or supervised in Maine, Louisiana, Texas, Arizona, Idaho, Missouri, California, and Pennsylvania.

Phillips Black is funded through tax-deductible charitable contributions and compensation for court-appointed representation; services are provided pro bono to qualifying clients and the organization does not publicly disclose financial details. Revenue mechanics combine an unspecified base of individual and institutional donors with court-appointed fees, supplemented by referral relationships with conviction integrity units (notably Philadelphia's CIU) and partnership arrangements with private law firms such as Hogan Lovells on Supreme Court matters. The organization's customer base is fundamentally distributed: individual defendants facing capital sentences are served without charge, while organizational "buyers" (courts, innocence projects, CIUs, donors) are similarly fragmented across multiple sources.

Name

Phillips Black

Legal name

Phillips Black

Website

https://www.phillipsblack.org/

Company type

Private

Founded year

2011

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Phillips Black is a nonprofit, public interest law practice providing post-conviction capital defense and federal habeas corpus representation to indigent individuals facing death sentences, juvenile life without parole, or wrongful conviction, operating through a chambers model across four U.S. cities.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Donations and Contributions: Tax-deductible charitable contributions from individuals and organizations supporting criminal justice reform and capital defense work
2. Court-Appointed Representation: Compensation for court-appointed representation of indigent defendants facing capital sentences or post-conviction challenges

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Phillips Black is a nonprofit, public interest law practice that provides the highest quality legal representation in state post-conviction proceedings and federal habeas corpus litigation for individuals facing or under death sentences or juvenile life without parole. It also conducts impact litigation, death penalty clinical training through law school partnerships, and empirical research on criminal justice administration, including JLWOP studies and the Finley Report.

Product overview

Phillips Black is a nonprofit, public interest law practice that provides legal representation to incarcerated individuals sentenced to the severest penalties under law. The organization operates as a collective of independent practitioners who collaborate on capital defense cases, combining direct legal representation services (post-conviction litigation, federal habeas corpus, strategic impact litigation), with education programs (death penalty clinical training at partner law schools), and research initiatives (juvenile justice/JLWOP policy studies, the Finley Report on legal ethics). The core offering is capital defense representation, supplemented by consulting services for capital counsel and criminal justice research.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Capital Defense Legal Representation Provides the highest quality legal representation in state post-conviction proceedings and federal habeas corpus litigation for individuals facing or under death sentences, from trial court through the U.S. Supreme Court. Delivered by Phillips Black principals, staff attorneys, and supervised clinical law students on a pro bono basis to qualifying indigent clients.
• Strategic Impact Litigation Impact litigation concerning constitutional failings of sentencing statutes and post-conviction review schemes to safeguard the integrity of the criminal justice system, including U.S. Supreme Court representation.
• Safeguarding Representation of the Condemned Consultation and advisory service for capital counsel monitoring constitutional rights to counsel and supporting representation in cases facing challenging procedural postures.
• Death Penalty Clinical Training Structured clinical training program for law students at partner law schools, providing practicums, externships, and J-term intensive placements in capital defense representation under principal supervision.
• Juvenile Justice Research (JLWOP) Empirical research publications on juvenile life without parole sentencing, including the reports 'Juvenile Life Without Parole After Miller' and 'No Hope: Re-examining Lifetime Sentences for Juvenile Offenders,' cataloguing judicial and legislative responses in all 50 states.
• Finley Report Empirical data report on how Finley 'no-merit' letters undermine legal ethics and judicial process in high-stakes criminal cases, co-authored with a wrongfully convicted Finley-letter recipient and a Phillips Black attorney for the Harvard Law Review.

Quantifiable outcome

• Multiple Supreme Court victories including Brenda Andrew summary reversal (2025) and Terry Pitchford oral argument (2026)
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers13 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Hogan LovellscoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 December 2025Partnership for Terry Pitchford SCOTUS case involving pleadings and oral argument. The firm provided support alongside Phillips Black principal Joseph Perkovich's representation before the Supreme Court.
• Washington University School of LawcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPhillips Black founded and leads a post-conviction clinical practicum at Washington University. Students contribute while gaining experience assisting in intensive capital defense representation.
• Saint Louis University School of LawcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPhillips Black maintains an office and hosts clinical externships. Joseph Perkovich co-founded and teaches the death penalty clinical program. Joseph Welling co-teaches the faculty's doctrinal seminar on capital punishment.
• University of California, Berkeley School of LawcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEstablished intensive clinical placement relationship. Berkeley Law places several students with Phillips Black in conjunction with the law school's death penalty clinic.
• Harvard Law SchoolcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPhillips Black hosts J-term externships where second-year students spend January in office working intensively, then continue work through spring term. Multiple Harvard Law graduates have joined as staff attorneys and fellows.
• UC Law San FranciscocoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPhillips Black hosts students and fellows involved in death penalty cases at every stage of litigation. John Mills teaches advanced capital punishment courses at UC Hastings.
• University of Idaho College of LawminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration hosting externs, providing pro bono opportunities for students, and teaching various courses on the death penalty and post-conviction remedies. Jessica Sutton teaches at the law school.
• Greenberg Traurig, LLPminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborated with Phillips Black Project and Philadelphia Conviction Integrity Unit on Theophalis Wilson case, resulting in exoneration after 28 years of wrongful incarceration for murders he did not commit.
• Philadelphia District Attorney's Conviction Integrity UnitcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborated on multiple exoneration cases including David Dickson, Larry Mullins, Christopher Powell, David Taylor, and others. CIU investigation led to convictions being overturned and charges dismissed.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project: Regional innocence organization working to exonerate wrongfully convicted individuals in the Mid-Atlantic. Directly comparable on the wrongful-conviction and post-conviction dimensions.
• Center for Death Penalty Litigation: North Carolina-based nonprofit providing capital defense representation and post-conviction services. Direct competitor in the same niche practice area with a comparable nonprofit, court-appointment funding model.
• Innocence Project: National nonprofit dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted individuals, including those on death row. Directly comparable on the post-conviction/wrongful-conviction dimension of Phillips Black's practice.
• Equal Justice Initiative: Founded by Bryan Stevenson, EJI provides legal representation to death-sentenced prisoners and pursues criminal justice reform. Closely comparable to Phillips Black in mission, capital defense focus, and impact-litigation strategy.
• Reprieve: International nonprofit working on death penalty and severe-sentence cases globally. Directly comparable in mission; Phillips Black staff (Greenfield, Elhadi Tejada) have prior Reprieve experience.
• Southern Center for Human Rights: Provides legal representation to people facing the death penalty and other severe sentences across the Deep South. Comparable in mission, public-interest structure, and capital defense focus.
• Texas Defender Service: Texas-based nonprofit providing capital defense representation and post-conviction services. Comparable in mission and operating model; Phillips Black Special Counsel Lee Kovarsky previously served as Post-Conviction Director there.
• Death Penalty Policy Project: Advocacy and policy organization focused on death penalty administration, directed by Phillips Black Special Counsel Robert Dunham. Closely linked peer working adjacent capital defense and policy work.

Broad incumbents

• American Civil Liberties Union: Major national civil liberties organization with a long-running Capital Punishment Project. Larger incumbent with overlapping impact-litigation goals but much broader mission scope.
• NAACP Legal Defense Fund: Major civil rights legal organization with capital punishment work as one component of a much broader civil rights portfolio. Larger, broader incumbent with overlapping mission on racial bias and capital representation.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles22 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Phillips Black