Charles Hunter was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, where he attended a private preparatory
high school on a competitive scholarship and graduated 8th among 125 students. He attended
college at the University of Texas at Austin, where he earned a bachelor of business
administration degree in Finance with honors in 1977.
Mr. Hunter continued his studies at UT Austin to earn a law degree in 1980, graduating in the
top
third of his class. As a law student, Mr. Hunter served as Note Editor of the Review of
Litigation, as member of the Law School Standards Committee, and as law school delegate
to the Constitutional Convention of the Students Association. Mr. Hunter worked as a law student
clerk in the law firm of Waggoner Carr, who served in the 1960s as Texas Attorney General and
member of the Warren Commission.
Sworn in as a member of the California State Bar in December 1980, Mr. Hunter worked first with
prominent civil rights lawyer Barry Fisher defending religious, speech and associational rights
in state and federal courts including two trips to the United States Supreme Court in the
context of public solicitation and reporting of donations, distribution of literature, and land
use. He also represented artists and entertainers in copyright and contractual matters. Mr.
Hunter next worked for business and insurance law firms prosecuting and defending securities,
trademark, copyright and insurance matters. He drafted insurance coverage opinions and advised
business organizations. He also represented criminal defendants in state and federal courts
gaining valuable courtroom experience.
Returning to Texas in 1994, Mr. Hunter worked as a management consultant advising large churches
and related non-profits nationwide on executive compensation issues and on compliance with laws
imposing excise taxes as intermediate sanctions on excess benefit transactions. Mr. Hunter next
worked as a third-party manager of non-qualified executive benefits plans created by his
employer for publicly-traded companies and other large employers in Texas and the Southwest. He
left that position to serve as Vice President of a small, Houston-based real estate development
firm.
Mr. Hunter joined Woska & Hayes LLP in March 2005 as a securities arbitration attorney. From
Houston-based offices, Mr. Hunter successfully represented numerous clients of the firm across
the country in settlements, mediations and arbitrations concerning the suitability of
investments held in securities brokerage accounts.
Admitted in Texas, California and Washington, Mr. Hunter currently is of counsel to Reich &
Binstock, LLP, where he partners with the firm and maintains his own practice to work on
consumer class actions, mass actions, and financial and commercial litigation including
business, health, homeowner and auto insurance disputes, pharmaceutical and medical device
products liability, medical malpractice, automotive and marine products liability, commercial
landlord liability, lender liability including derivative swaps, employment misclassification
and retaliation, fair labor standards act violations involving payment of minimum wage and
overtime, and consumer fraud including Telephone Consumer Protection Act violations, along with
trademark, trade secret, and noncompetition litigation. Mr. Hunter advises Houston businesses
and individuals in corporate and contractual matters and litigates their disputes with customers
and competitors.
Mr. Hunter has represented county governments across the nation in actions to collect deed
recording fees and real property transfer taxes from an association of banks and title companies
and from government sponsored enterprises. He continues the firm’s successful representation of
consumers in actions against auto insurers for their failure to pay diminished value losses on
vehicles involved in accidents. He represents Texas health care providers in the Providers Track
of cases in the Blue Cross Blue Shield Anti-Trust Litigation. He has served as interim co-lead
counsel in the Yamaha outboard motor products liability litigation and currently pursues claims
against other manufacturers of defective products.
