Judge Robert Neal Hunter Jr., (Ret.), J.D., LL.M.

Bio

Former North Carolina Court of Appeals Judge Robert Neal Hunter Jr. is a graduate of UNC’s School of Law and Duke’s LL.M. program. He served on the appellate court from 2009-2019 and authored over 800 opinions. His opinions for the court spanned a wide variety of cases, such as reviewing decisions involving director breach of fiduciary duty, class-action settlements, corporate dissolutions, the misappropriation of confidential information and trade secrets, equitable adjustments in construction law, insurance claims, and medical malpractice.

Before his judicial service, Hunter devoted much of his private practice to election law — especially to cases involving disputed elections, redistricting, voting rights, and equal protection claims. He has further pursued his interest in election law through a variety of academic publications, including Racial Gerrymandering and the Voting Rights Act in North Carolina, 9 Campbell Law Rev. 255 (1987); The Past as Prologue: Albion Tourgee and the North Carolina Constitution, 5 Elon Law Rev. 89 (1987); and Do Nonpartisan Publicly Financed Elections Enhance Relative Judicial Independence, 93 UNC Law Rev. 1825 (2015).

Hunter is also well-versed in alternative dispute resolution (ADR). Certified as a superior court mediator in the first class of ADR professionals licensed in North Carolina in 1992, he became an arbitrator for the National Association of Securities Administration (NASA now FINRA) in 1994. After his judicial service, he resumed his alternative dispute resolution private practice as an experienced state court arbitrator and mediator. Also, he is engaged in multiple arbitrations for the American Arbitration Association (AAA) on its Commercial national panels.

Reflecting his outstanding quality as a jurist, Hunter has been honored multiple times for his legal contributions, winning the 2011 and 2019 Outstanding Appellate Judge of the Year awards from the North Carolina Advocates for Justice. He also won the 2013 McNeill Smith Constitutional Rights and Responsibilities Section Award and the 2017 Leadership in the Law Award from Elon Law and Lawyer’s Weekly.