AIM Chairman Emeritus Jerry M. Hunter receives "Richard S. Arnold Award for Distinguished Service"
- AIM Team
- 2 minutes ago
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The Eighth Circuit Bar Association said in a release dated October 17, 2025, the “Richard S. Arnold Award for Distinguished Service” was recently awarded by the Eighth Circuit Bar Association to Jerry M. Hunter. Mr. Hunter previously served as Chairman of the Board of Associated Industries of Missouri and is currently a Chairman Emeritus of that organization.
Hunter is Senior Counsel at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP with special expertise in labor and employment law. Hunter graduated from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluffs with a bachelor’s degree in history and government and graduated from Washington University Law School in 1977. Ten years later, Hunter completed the Senior Executive program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government.
From 1989 to 1993, Hunter served as General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, having been nominated to that position by President George H. W. Bush and confirmed by the United States Senate in November 1989. As General Counsel, Hunter oversaw the agency’s operations across thirty-three regional offices, supervised the agency’s 1,800 employees, prosecuted unfair labor practice cases before the Board, and represented the agency in federal courts.
In 1995, Hunter was appointed by the bipartisan leadership of Congress to serve a four-year term as a member of the Board of Directors of the Office of Compliance, which had been established by the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995 to administer civil rights and labor laws made applicable to the legislative branch by the Act.
Hunter previously served as Director of the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, from 1986 to 1988, under Governor John D. Ashcroft. Earlier in his career, he was employed as labor counsel by the Kellwood Company, a St. Louis, Missouri-based Fortune 500 corporation, as a field attorney for the NLRB and as a senior trial attorney for the EEOC.
"Jerry is very deserving of this honor and we applaud his accomplishment," said Ray McCarty, president and CEO of Associated Industries of Missouri. "Businesses in Missouri regularly benefit from his willingness to serve and his legal expertise, particularly in labor law. We are very proud of him."
This year’s Richard S. Arnold Award for Distinguished Service was presented during the Eighth Circuit Judicial Conference held in Kansas City, Missouri, on August 1, 2025. The award is named in honor of former Chief Judge Richard S. Arnold, who led a distinguished career that included graduating first in his class at Yale University and Harvard Law School. Judge Arnold clerked for Justice William Brennan on the Supreme Court of the United States before entering private practice and serving on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. Judge Arnold’s biographer said that he was “perhaps the best judge never to
serve on the Supreme Court.” The award is certainly fitting for Mr. Hunter, who likewise has achieved a career of distinguished service.