Jerry M. Hunter is Senior Counsel in the Litigation Corporate Risk Department and the Labor and Employment Law Client Service Group of the law firm of Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP.  He practices out of the Firm's St. Louis and Washington offices where his practice involves conducting internal investigations, serving as an arbitrator and mediator, and representing clients in all phases of labor and employment law, including preventative labor relations and supervisory training, affirmative action and diversity issues, labor arbitration, handling charges filed with the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”), the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”), U.S. Department of Labor, state and local civil rights agencies and cases filed in both federal and state courts.  Mr. Hunter has also represented clients on legislative issues pending in Washington, D.C. and Jefferson City, Missouri, the capital of Missouri.  In conjunction with his law practice, Mr. Hunter has represented both large and small businesses in administrative hearings before federal, state and local administrative agencies.  He has also:

• Conducted management training to prepare managers for various issues which may arise in the workplace;

• Represented businesses of all sizes in employment and benefit cases; and

• Served as an outside investigator in high profile employment and executive compensation matters.

Prior to joining Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP as a partner in January, 1994, Mr. Hunter served as General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board ("NLRB") from November 1989 through November 27, 1993. Mr. Hunter was nominated for the position of General Counsel of the NLRB by President George H. W. Bush during May, 1989, and confirmed by the United States Senate during November, 1989.  In that position, he supervised the Office of General Counsel and the agency's 1,800 employees; oversaw the operations of 33 regional, two sub-regional and 17 resident offices; prosecuted unfair labor practice cases before the Five Member Board; and represented the agency before the Federal District Courts, the U.S. Courts of Appeals and the Supreme Court.

Mr. Hunter previously served as Director of the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations from 1986 through November 30, 1988.  Mr. Hunter was nominated for this position by Governor John D. Ashcroft and confirmed by the Missouri State Senate during May, 1986.  Prior to that appointment, he was employed as labor counsel by the Kellwood Company, a St. Louis, Missouri-based Fortune 500 corporation, from 1981 through May, 1986.  He has also been employed as a field attorney by the National Labor Relations Board and as a senior trial attorney by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Mr. Hunter is a 1974 graduate of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and government, and a 1977 graduate of Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, Missouri.  Early in the spring of 1987, Mr. Hunter was awarded a Danforth Foundation fellowship to participate in the program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  He completed the Senior Executive program during the summer of 1987.

On May 24, 1995, Mr. Hunter was appointed by the Leadership of the United States Congress (Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole, Minority Leader Tom Daschle, Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and Minority Leader Richard Gephardt) to serve a four-year term as a member of the Board of Directors of the Office of Compliance.  The Office was established by the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995 to administer the eleven statutes in the areas of civil rights and labor laws made applicable to the legislative branch by the Act.  The five-member Board is responsible for administering the Office, carrying out an educational program for the House and Senate, adopting rules and regulations to implement the new laws, and serving as the appeals body for administrative complaints under the Act.

During August, 1994, Mr. Hunter was elected as a Member of the Board of Directors of Kellwood Company, a St. Louis, Missouri based Fortune 500 Company, which was an international marketer of apparel and soft goods.  Prior to the purchase of Kellwood by Sun Capital of Boca Raton, Florida during February, 2008, Mr. Hunter served as Chairman of the Corporate Governance Committee, a Member of the Executive Committee and the Lead Director for the Kellwood Board of Directors.  Mr. Hunter was elected a member of the Board of Directors of the American Arbitration Association at its Annual Meeting on April 30, 1997, where he served as a Member of the Board and its Executive Committee until May, 2009.  He also served as a Member of the U.S. Senate Small Business Advisory Council from April 1995 through 1999 where he served as an outside advisor to U.S. Senator Christopher “Kit” Bond (R-Mo.) and also served as a Member of U.S. Senator Roy Blunt’s Senatorial Council.  Mr. Hunter served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Associated Industries of Missouri (“AIM”), Missouri’s oldest, statewide business association.  On September 22, 2018, Mr. Hunter was appointed by President Trump to serve as a Member of the President’s Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

During December, 2018, Missouri Attorney General-Designate Eric Schmitt appointed Mr. Hunter to serve as Co-Chairperson of his Transition Committee and charged him with leading the review of senior level attorneys and managers in the Missouri Attorney General office and recommending individuals for appointment by Attorney General Schmitt upon his swearing-in as Attorney General to succeed Joshua Hawley, who was elected to the United States Senate.  Mr. Hunter’s tenure as Co-Chairperson of Attorney General-Designate Schmitt’s Transition Committee was for the period of December, 2018 through January, 2019.

During January, 2017, Mr. Hunter was elected as a Member of the Boards of Directors of Simmons First National Corporation and Simmons Bank where he serves as a Member of the Compensation, Nominating and Governance, Audit and Compliance Committees. During November, 2022, Mr. Hunter was elected as a Member of the Board of Directors of Missouri-American Water Company.

Mr. Hunter previously served as a Member of the National Board of Directors of Boys Hope Girls Hope from October, 1994 to June, 2019.  He is a member of The College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, Inc., the American Bar, the National Bar, the Missouri Bar, the Arkansas Bar, the Mound City Bar, and the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis.  He is licensed to practice law in the States of Missouri and Arkansas, and is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, the United States Courts of Appeals for the District of Columbia, Fifth, Eighth and Ninth Circuits, and the United States District Court for the Eastern and Western District of Arkansas, the Central and Southern District of Illinois, the Eastern and Western District of Missouri, and the Southern District of Texas.

Mr. Hunter has been a regular selection to Best Lawyers in the United States, Chambers USA America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, Super Lawyers, and Lawdragon’s the One Hundred Most Powerful Employment Lawyers in America.