Jody Hunt/photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALMJody Hunt is joining Alston & Bird as senior counsel after resigning in the last month as chief of the Department of Justice’s civil division.
Hunt left the Justice Department on July 3 after serving as assistant attorney general of the civil division for the last two years. He oversaw the legal defense of Trump administration policies, along with the White House’s broad refusal to respond to congressional oversight requests.
Hunt will join Alston & Bird in August as part of its litigation practice, working out of its Washington, D.C., and Atlanta offices.
Hunt spent almost 21 years at the DOJ, serving under four Republican and Democratic administrations.
“Alston & Bird is the premier law firm for government enforcement litigation, particularly in matters involving health care, pharmaceuticals, and life sciences,” Hunt said in an announcement from the firm on Wednesday. “The firm has a stellar reputation because of the quality of its work and the manner it represents clients facing government enforcement efforts.”
Hunt oversaw a team of more than 1,000 lawyers as assistant attorney general for the civil division. “His decades of outstanding public service under four presidents and reputation as a by-the-book civil servant truly make him a lawyer for all seasons and an outstanding addition for our clients and our firm,” said Alston & Bird’s chairman, Richard Hays, in a statement.
The head of Alston & Bird’s health care litigation team, Bill Jordan, who had worked with Hunt at the Justice Department earlier in his career, said Hunt will be an important team addition in representing clients in government enforcement actions.
“His experience as one of the most senior members of the Justice Department and his leadership across four different administrations will be of significant benefit to general counsel, CEOs and boards of directors as they seek to better understand and keep pace with government civil and criminal policies and enforcement priorities,” Jordan said.
Under Hunt’s leadership, the DOJ’s civil division defended the Trump administration in suits over the Emoluments Clauses and challenges to the president’s executive orders, such as the travel bans and the border-wall emergency declaration. The DOJ successfully opposed suits against a number of immigration policies such as migrant protection protocols and the third-country asylum rule.
In combating the opioid epidemic, the civil division last year helped secure a $1.4 billion settlement from Reckitt Benckiser Group, the largest-ever government recovery in a case against an opioid manufacturer. Early this year, the civil division announced a massive sweep of cases against elder fraud, charging more than 400 defendants with more than $1 billion in losses to older Americans.
After joining the Justice Department in 1999, Hunt served as a trial attorney and then in 2002 became director of the civil division’s Federal Program’s Branch until 2017, when he served as chief of staff to former Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He then became a senior adviser to the DOJ’s Office of Legal Policy until President Donald Trump nominated him as assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s civil division. He was confirmed in August 2018.
Before joining the DOJ in 1999, Hunt spent the first decade of his career clerking for U.S. District Court Judge James Hancock of the Northern District of Alabama, then working for White & Case in Washington, followed by four years at King & Spalding in Atlanta, where he became a partner.
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