About Hammond Legal

Lead Attorney

Emilee Hammond

Emilee Hammond is a licensed Indiana attorney whose practice spans criminal defense, family law, child welfare, post-conviction relief, appellate advocacy, employment law, and civil litigation. She founded Hammond Legal to bring that range of experience directly to individuals, families, and organizations throughout Central Indiana.

Her legal career began with the Indiana Department of Child Services, where she represented the State in CHINS matters in Union, Franklin, and Henry counties. She then joined the Marion County Public Defender Agency, where she served as appointed counsel to more than 200 parents in CHINS proceedings and participated in over 150 mediations. That experience — representing parents against a state agency with significant resources — shaped her approach to client advocacy: thorough preparation, direct communication, and a focus on what the client actually needs from the process.

At the Public Defender of Indiana, she spent six-plus years investigating and litigating post-conviction relief petitions. She reviewed court files, conducted independent investigations, interviewed witnesses, and drafted legal memoranda assessing the merit of constitutional claims — work reviewed by a committee of four attorneys before any petition was filed. She negotiated settlements resulting in 49 years and 49 days in reduced sentences, conducted evidentiary hearings, and drafted three appellate briefs, including one resulting in a published opinion and one resulting in a reversal. She also served as faculty for the Indiana Public Defender Commission's Trial Practice Institute in 2024.

She subsequently joined Kightlinger and Gray LLP, a civil litigation firm, where she worked on insurance defense matters — developing litigation strategy, drafting pleadings and motions, and preparing discovery across a range of civil cases. Most recently, she served as Attorney-Advisor (General) at the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, Office of General Counsel, where she litigated administrative and employment law matters before the EEOC, the Merit Systems Protection Board, and federal courts — advising senior leadership on litigation strategy, risk, and case resolution.

She also serves as an adjunct professor in the Legal Studies program at Ivy Tech Community College, where she develops and teaches curriculum on litigation and civil procedure.

Hammond Legal was founded to bring that full spectrum of experience — criminal, civil, appellate, administrative — to clients who deserve a lawyer who has actually been in the room.

"Every client walks in carrying something serious. Our job is to be as prepared as the situation demands — and to make sure they understand every step of the process."