Before joining the faculty in 2004, Hatcher was in a statewide position with the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau, serving as the assistant director of advocacy for public benefits and economic stability. He previously worked as a staff attorney for Legal Aid in the Baltimore Child Advocacy Unit representing abused and neglected children, and he represented adult clients all poverty law matters – including public benefits, housing, consumer and family law issues. He was also a senior staff attorney with the Children's Defense Fund where he worked on policy development and legislative advocacy in areas affecting child and family poverty. Hatcher has testified before Congress, the Maryland General Assembly and in other governmental proceedings regarding several issues affecting children and low-income individuals and families.

Hatcher's scholarship has addressed the conflicts between state agencies' revenue maximization strategies and the agencies' core missions to serve low-income children and families – including the practice of state foster care agencies converting foster children's Social Security benefits into state revenue, Medicaid maximization and diversion practices, welfare cost recovery policies in the TANF program, and foster care cost recovery through child support enforcement. His scholarship has attracted national attention, including significant press coverage, congressional testimony, citation in multiple Congressional Research Service reports, requests to draft legislation, and continued participation in national policy reform efforts.