Leslie Pinckney Hill II was born in Philadelphia in 1900 to Samuel Terry Hill and Ella Frances Tyler Hill. He was a nephew of Leslie Pinckney Hill, a prominent educator, administrator, and writer, and Jane Clark Hill, who also worked in higher education. The elder Leslie Pinckney Hill was notably the director of the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia and the first president of Cheyney University.
Hill came to the Yale Law School in 1921 after receiving a BA from Lincoln University in 1920. During his time at Yale, he lived at 24 Dickerman Street, the same address listed for fellow Yale Law student Earley Emmett Caple. He was married to Leila Carter Hill and had a long career as an attorney in Philadelphia. In 1975, he and his wife, along with two of her siblings, sadly died when there was a fire at their home.