Boutique Practice Focused on Higher Education Finance
Public Goods Practice is a boutique law firm dedicated to protecting borrowers and reshaping the broken system of higher education finance. We bring clarity and strategy to some of the most complex issues students and borrowers face. The firm is built on three principles:
Uncompromising Advocacy
Borrowers face real harm from errors, deception, and abuse in the student loan system. We are committed to seeking the maximum restitution available for every client, no matter the size of their case. For us, every case represents an opportunity to protect individuals and send a message that companies cannot get away with breaking the law.
Litigation as a Force for Systematic Change
We believe effective legal representation goes beyond solving one borrower’s problem. The same cases that secure justice for individual clients can also expose larger patterns of misconduct and drive improvements to the system as a whole. Through strategic litigation, we aim to build accountability and make higher education financing more fair for everyone.
Collaboration for Stronger Outcomes
The best legal work happens through collaboration. PGP partners closely with other law firms, researchers, and advocacy organizations to bring together diverse expertise, market knowledge, and resources. This approach allows us to offer the personal attention of a boutique practice with the sophistication and scale of a larger team.
Austin Hinkle
Austin founded the Public Goods Practice to protect borrowers and hold accountable the companies that unfairly profit from student debt. Before launching PGP, he worked at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the U.S. Department of Education, The Department of the Treasury, and the Obama White House where he led efforts to uncover and address systemic failures in the student loan system and improve operations.
Austin brings this experience to PGP, combining rigorous legal analysis with a practical understanding of how servicers, lenders, and schools operate. He works closely with borrowers to build cases that not only seek individual justice but also drive systemic accountability across the higher education finance system.
Austin is licensed to practice law in Pennsylvania, California, and Georgia.
Paul Delaney Mayer
Paul joined Public Goods Practice to help borrowers navigate the complex and unfair legal landscape of student debt. Prior to joining PGP, Paul worked at two global law firms, including serving as the editor for the leading treatise on the civil False Claims Act. He has diverse experience navigating complex state and federal regulations, including the False Claims Act, health care and government contractor fraud, whistleblower law, investigations, and antitrust.
In his pro-bono work, he has represented victims of the family separation policy attempting to gain compensation for their harm, worked with the NAACP to successfully extend the voter registration deadline in a special election in Mississippi, and led the effort for students at the University of Texas to intervene and defend the school’s affirmative action admissions policy.
Paul served as a law fellow, teaching legal writing to first year law students, and was selected as an Equal Justice Works Summer Fellow, working on expungement cases with Legal Services of Northern Virginia. He also was a Managing Editor of the Georgetown Immigration Law Journal.
Paul is licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia.