Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute (HLLI)

Background

The Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute (HLLI) was co-founded by Ted Frank, who launched the institute’s predecessor organization, the Center for Class Action Fairness (CCAF) in 2009. CCAF was established to provide pro bono legal services to consumers and shareholders in class action suits. In that vein, CCAF has claimed that it has supported the financial interests of investors, retirees, and citizens by reducing or eliminating $650 million in attorney fee requests in class action settlements. ¹

In 2019, CCAF established the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute (HLLI) to engage in advocacy and litigation involving civil, class action, and regulatory issues. ¹

Notable Cases

Julie Campbell, et al. v. Sirius XM Radio Inc.

In the 2026 case, Julie Campbell, et al. v. Sirius XM Radio Inc., Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute’s Center for Class Action Fairness (CCAF) represented an objector challenging a proposed class action settlement that claimed it unfairly prioritized attorney fees over consumer compensation. The proposed settlement, which was valued at $28 million, would have paid out $9.6 million in attorneys’ fees while only paying out $3 per class member. CCAF made the claim that typical fees for attorneys range from 20 to 25 percent of a given settlement fund, whereas in this case, that total proposed amount was over 36 percent. CCAF further claimed that the proposed settlement did not disclose quantitative information about the attorneys’ work, which made it difficult for class members to object to the proposed fees.  ²

CCAF requested that the court reduce the fee award to $5.5 million or require greater transparency regarding the attorneys’ billing. On June 26, 2026, following a fairness hearing, the district court approved the proposed settlement, denying CCAF’s request for greater transparency. In July 2026, the center filed a motion for reconsideration, claiming that the settlement would distribute a cy pres residual to the National Consumer Law Center, an organization where a partner of the lead class counsel’s firm sat on the board. The plaintiffs then agreed to withdraw NCLC as a cy pres recipient, though the fee award remained the same. ²

In re Automotive Parts Antitrust Litigation

In the 2025 case In re Automotive Parts Antitrust Litigation, CCAF filed an objection on behalf of two car rental franchises to a last-minute request by attorneys to add $93 million to its fee award. Counsel had already received $269 million in fees from settlements totaling $1.2 billion and requested the additional $93 million, which would award them 30 percent, despite previously stating that they would not seek more than the 22 percent fee that had been settled. CCAF claimed that fees for billion-dollar cases were typically below 15 percent. On July 11, 2025, the fee motion was denied, with the court stating that “the requested fee award [was] excessive.” ³

Financials

In 2024, the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute reported $791,715 in revenue from contributions and grants and $724,668 from program services. ⁴ Organizations that contributed to HLLI that year included DonorsTrust ($350,000), ⁵ the Searle Freedom Trust ($225,000),  ⁶ and the Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program ($201,000).  ⁷

In 2024, HLLI paid out $1.1 million in salaries and compensation out of its total expenses of $1.4 million; ⁸  spent $891,115 to support its efforts related to civil, class action, and regulatory issues; and spent $346,545 on its Center for Class Action Fairness (CCAF) program. ⁹

Leadership

As of 2026, Ted Frank was the director of litigation and senior attorney at the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute, as well as a member of the executive committee of the Federalist Society Litigation Practice Group. Frank founded the Center for Class Action Fairness, the predecessor of HLLI, in 2009. Previously, he clerked for Judge Frank H. Easterbrook on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, worked as a litigator at firms in Washington and California, and was a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. In 2008, Frank was elected to membership in the American Law Institute. ¹⁰