[2] She became a national figure in 1991 when she accused U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, her supervisor at the United States Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, of sexual harassment.

[7] Hill was admitted to the District of Columbia Bar in 1980 and began her law career as an associate with the Washington, D.C. firm of Wald, Harkrader & Ross.

[12] In 1991, President George H. W. Bush nominated Clarence Thomas, a federal circuit judge, to succeed retiring Associate Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.

Senate hearings on his confirmation were initially completed[13] with Thomas's good character being presented as a primary qualification for the high court because he had been a judge for just slightly more than one year.

[14] There had been little organized opposition to Thomas's nomination, and his confirmation seemed assured[14] until a report of a private interview of Hill by the FBI was leaked to the press.

"[4][17] According to Hill, Thomas asked her out socially many times during her two years of employment as his assistant,[18] and after she declined his requests, he used work situations to discuss sexual subjects and push advances.

"[19] Four female witnesses waited in the wings to support Hill's credibility, but they were not called,[15][20] due to what the Los Angeles Times described as a private, compromise deal between Republicans and the Senate Judiciary Committee chair, Democrat Joe Biden.

[18][10][15][26] Hill countered that she had come forward because she felt an obligation to share information on the character and actions of a person who was being considered for the Supreme Court.

[15] She testified that after leaving the EEOC, she had had two "inconsequential" phone conversations with Thomas, and had seen him personally on two occasions, once to get a job reference and the second time when he made a public appearance in Oklahoma where she was teaching.

"[30][31] Writing in 2007, Neil Lewis of The New York Times remarked that, "To this day, each side in the epic he-said, she-said dispute has its unmovable believers.

"[32] In 2007, Thomas published his autobiography, My Grandfather's Son, in which he revisited the controversy, calling Hill his "most traitorous adversary", and writing that pro-choice liberals, who feared he would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade if he were seated on the Supreme Court, used the scandal against him.

Hill initially believed the call was a hoax and referred the matter to the Brandeis University campus police who alerted the FBI.

[24][37] After being informed that the call was indeed from Virginia Thomas, Hill told the media that she did not believe the message was meant to be conciliatory and said, "I testified truthfully about my experience and I stand by that testimony.

[24][3] Shortly after the Thomas confirmation hearings, President George H. W. Bush dropped his opposition to a bill that gave harassment victims the right to seek federal damage awards, back pay, and reinstatement, and the law was passed by Congress.

"[40] The manner in which the Senate Judiciary Committee challenged and dismissed Hill's accusations of sexual harassment angered female politicians and lawyers.

[41] According to D.C. Congressional Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, Hill's treatment by the panel was a contributing factor to the large number of women elected to Congress in 1992.

[42] In 1992, a feminist group began a nationwide fundraising campaign and then obtained matching state funds to endow a professorship at the University of Oklahoma College of Law in honor of Hill.

[11] Elmer Zinn Million, a local activist, compared Hill to Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin of President Kennedy.

[9] She is also the author of articles that have been published in The New York Times and Newsweek[3][9] and has contributed to many scholarly and legal publications in the areas of international commercial law, bankruptcy, and civil rights.

[3][54] In 1997 Hill published her autobiography, Speaking Truth to Power,[55] in which she chronicled her role in the Clarence Thomas confirmation controversy[3][5] and wrote that creating a better society had been a motivating force in her life.

[5] On March 26, 2015, the Brandeis Board of Trustees unanimously voted to recognize Hill with a promotion to Private University Professor of Social Policy, Law, and Women's Studies.

The new initiative was spearheaded by co-chair of the Nike Foundation Maria Eitel, venture capitalist Freada Kapor Klein, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy and talent attorney Nina Shaw.

[61] In September 2018, Hill wrote an op-ed in The New York Times regarding sexual assault allegations made by Christine Blasey Ford during the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination.

[77] On January 7, 2017, Hill was inducted as an honorary member of Zeta Phi Beta sorority at their National Executive Board Meeting in Dallas, Texas.