Barry D. Hunter

Industries

• Energy
  • Oil, Gas & Minerals

Practices

• Business & Commercial Litigation
• Litigation

Biography

Barry focuses his practice on commercial litigation, with significant experience in securities litigation, coal sales and other energy litigation, equine litigation and professional liability cases.

Barry has defended several major corporations and their directors and officers against securities fraud claims, including a major 10b-5 claim leading to the collapse of Kentucky Central Life Insurance Company in the Eastern District of Kentucky, as well as a class-action claim arising out of the decline in the stock price of VideoLan Technologies, Inc., in the Western District of Kentucky. He has defended numerous accounting firms in connection with securities and malpractice claims arising out of audits, special reports and compilations, and he has both defended and prosecuted attorney malpractice actions involving securities law claims.

Barry has litigated an extensive array of coal sales and other energy-related cases. In coal sales, Barry has handled numerous arbitrations and lawsuits at the state and federal levels on behalf of coal producers and public utilities. He has also defended coal producers in “lost coal” cases brought by landowners complaining about the sterilization of coal reserves. Additionally, Barry has represented major oil companies in lawsuits against government regulators.

Barry has also litigated numerous equine cases, including the successful prosecution of a fraud and RICO action on behalf of participants in a mare leasing program that resulted in one of the largest judgments ever entered in the Eastern District of Kentucky (In re ClassicStar Mare Lease Litigation, 823 F.Supp.2d 599). In Indiana, he successfully prosecuted a commerce clause challenge to the state’s claiming rule statutes and regulations at thoroughbred racetracks (Jamgotchian v. Indiana House Racing Commission, 2017 WL 4168488 (S.D. Ind. 2017)

Barry recently became a certified arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association and has begun arbitrating the same type of complex commercial cases that he continues to handle as an advocate.

In addition to numerous other matters in which he has successfully represented clients in trial (Plante v. Seanor, 2018 WL 5730160), arbitrations and administrative proceedings, Barry tried a major indemnity action in a two-week jury trial in the Eastern District of Kentucky, which resulted in a multimillion-dollar jury verdict in favor of his client (Appalachian Regional Healthcare v. U.S. Nursing, 2018 WL 6323074).