H. Hunter Twiford III

H. Hunter Twiford III is a senior litigator in the firm’s commercial litigation section, with over 36 years of practice experience. Hunter chairs the firm's Mississippi commercial litigation section and the Mississippi class action and mass action section. His practice is exclusively devoted to litigation, primarily in federal court, with emphasis on the defense of class actions and mass actions, consumer financial services litigation and complex lender liability litigation, and he represents primarily lenders and financial institutions named as defendants.

Hunter is co-founder and Co-Editor-in-Chief of the CAFA Law Blog, the first (and only) blog in the country to focus on the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005, published by McGlinchey Stafford. The CAFA Law Blog is widely recognized as authoritative on the subject of the Class Action Fairness Act. Hunter has also written numerous articles and spoken at a number of national seminars on the Class Action Fairness Act since its February, 2005 adoption. Hunter writes and speaks on other aspects of class action practice and electronic discovery.

In addition to his regular litigation practice prior to joining McGlinchey, Hunter also served as City Attorney for several Mississippi municipalities, including City Attorney for the City of Clarksdale, Mississippi for more than 25 years. He has represented local governments in a variety of litigation, including annexations, personnel and employment litigation, civil rights defense and regulatory investigations. Hunter served as the Mississippi Chairman of the International Municipal Lawyers Association from 1992 through 2003, and is a past president of the City Attorney’s Section of the Mississippi Municipal League. Hunter’s writings on Mississippi annexation law have been quoted by the Mississippi Supreme Court in annexation decisions. He is also listed in multiple editions of Best Lawyers in America in the area of Municipal Law.

Hunter has been involved in bar work at the state and local levels, and is a past president of the Coahoma County Bar Association. He also served as Bar Commissioner representing the Eleventh Circuit District on the Mississippi Board of Bar Commissioners (1998-2001), and as a member of the Executive Committee of the Mississippi Bar (2000-2001). He is a Fellow of the Mississippi Bar Foundation, a former Trustee of the Foundation (2000-2003), and is its immediate past President (2007-2008).

Hunter was also a founding member and a two-term chairman of the Mississippi Bar’s Technology Committee (1999-2000, 2000-2001) and has served on its Executive Committee since inception. Hunter was awarded the Mississippi Bar’s Distinguished Service Award in 2001 for his work in the area of technology for lawyers and the Bar, particularly in the area of courtroom and litigation presentation technology, and has written and lectured extensively on topics related to litigation and technology.

Hunter was a multi-term member of the Mississippi Board of Bar Admissions (1996-2008), which is responsible for administering bar examinations in Mississippi. Hunter wrote the federal and state practice portions of the bar examinations.

Hunter is a Master of the Bench of the William C. Keady Chapter of the American Inns of Court, a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates, a member of the Hinds and Coahoma County (past president) Bar Associations, the Mississippi Bar, the Fifth Circuit and Federal Bar Associations and is admitted to practice in all federal and state courts in Mississippi, the Fifth and Eleventh Circuit Courts of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court. He was also an Adjunct Professor at Coahoma Community College for 27 years, teaching courses in business law and real estate.

Litigation

Hunter has acted as McGlinchey's lead trial counsel in class actions against major national banks and mortgage lenders; as lead trial counsel defending a major national bank and its subsidiaries in over a dozen mass actions involving hundreds of plaintiffs filed in state and federal courts throughout Mississippi; as lead trial counsel defending a GSE involved in significant federal contract and IP litigation; as lead trial counsel for several lenders in a series of mass actions involving RICO claims; and as lead trial counsel for an insurance adjusting company in over 100 Katrina-related cases including RICO, fraud, contract and negligence claims. Prior to joining McGlinchey, Hunter was a named partner in a North Mississippi law firm, with extensive litigation experience in a wide variety of cases, including mass action defense, civil rights defense (including law enforcement liability), employment law and criminal defense. Hunter has acted as lead counsel in numerous jury trials tried to verdict in various federal and state courts in his more than three decades of practice, including a number of cases of statewide and regional interest.

Recent Published Opinions

• Hennis v. Trustmark Bank, 2010 WL 1904860 (S.D.Miss. May 10, 2010)
• Harold H. Huggins Realty, Inc. v. FNC, Inc., 2009 WL 2449888 (N.D.Miss. 2009)
• Norman Place, LP v. AA Communications, Inc., 2009 WL 2058801 (N.D.Miss. 2009)
• U.S. ex rel. Rigsby v. State Farm Ins. Co., 2009 WL 1045463 (S.D.Miss. 2009)
• Blades v. Countrywide Home Loans, Inc., 2009 WL 903589 (S.D. Miss. 2009)
• Paul v. Landsafe Flood Determination, Inc., 550 F.3d 511 (5th Cir. 2008)
• Capital Business Credit, LLC v. Huntington Fabrics, Inc., 2007 WL 3027442 (N.D. Miss. 2007)
• McIntosh v. State Farm Fire & Cas. Co., 2007 WL 2702700 (S.D. Miss. 2007)
• Veal, et al. v. J. P. Morgan Trust Company, N. A. et al., 955 So.2d 843, Supreme Court No. 2005-IA-00607-SCT (Miss. 2007)
• Price v. Coldwell Banker Real Estate Corporation, 2007 WL 431046 (N.D. Miss. 2007)
• McMaster v. MeritPlan, 2007 WL 892446 (S.D. Miss. 2007)
• Ivey v. Coldwell Banker Real Estate Corporation, 2007 WL 902814 (N.D. Miss. 2007)
• People's Choice Home Loan, Inc. v. Price, 2006 WL 516833 (N.D. Miss. 2006)
• Crawford v. WMC Mortgage Corp. 2006 WL 2095414 (S.D. Miss. 2006)
• J. P. Morgan Chase & Company v. Conegie ex rel. Lee 2006 WL 166686 (N.D. Miss. 2006)
• Murry v. Coldwell Banker Real Estate Corporation, 2006 WL 1626596 (N.D. Miss. 2006)
• Ryan v. EquiCredit Corporation of America, 2006 WL 129957 (S.D. Miss. 2006)
• Fitzgerald v. Equicredit Corp. of America, 2006 WL 839478 (N.D. Miss. 2006)
• People's Choice Home Loan, Inc. v. Price, 2006 WL 516833 (N.D. Miss. 2006)
• People's Choice Home Loan, Inc. v. Citizen, 2006 WL 288116 (N.D. Miss. 2006)
• Toler v. Litton Loan Service, 2006 WL 1303129 (S.D. Miss. 2006)
• Delaney v. Bank of America Corporation, 2004 WL 1553518 (N.D. Miss. 2004)
• Wilson v. Bank of America Corp., N.A., 2004 WL 443881 (S.D. Miss. 2004)
• Hines v. Bank of America Corp., 2004 WL 439997 (N.D. Miss. 2004)
• Lott v. NationsCredit Financial Services Corp., 2004 WL 741681 (N.D. Miss. 2004)
• Scruggs, Millette, Bozeman & Dent v. Merkel & Cocke, 804 So.2d 1000 (Miss. 2001)
• Briarwood, Inc. v. City of Clarksdale, Mississippi, 766 So.2d 73 (Miss. App. 2000)
• Scruggs, Millette v. Merkel & Cocke, 763 So.2d 869 (Miss. 2000)
• City of Clarksdale v. Smith, 736 So.2d 482 (Miss. App. 1999)
• Hooker v. State, 716 So.2d 1104 (Miss. 1998)
• Dunn v. Mississippi State Department of Health, 708 So.2d 67 (Miss. 1998)
• Davis v. Magnolia Lady, Inc., 178 F.R.D. 473 (N.D. Miss. 1998)
• Davis v. Lady Luck, 197 WL 790508, 11 N.D.L.R. 264 (N.D. Miss. 1997)
• City of Clarksdale, Mississippi v. Mississippi Employment Security Commission, 699 So.2d 578 (Miss. 1997)
• McNeil v. Nowell Funeral Services, Inc., 678 So.2d 1015 (Miss. App. 1996)
• City of Clarksdale v. Briarwood, Inc., 675 So.2d 1252 (Miss. App. 1996)
• Lee v. Coahoma County, 937 F.2d 220 (5th Cir. 1991), 986 F.2d 100 (5th Cir. 1993), 37 F.3d 1068 (5th Cir. 1995), cert. denied, 514 U.S. 1066 (1995)