Hayes Hunt is chair of the firm's Pro Bono Committee and Professional Development Committee and a member of Cozen O'Connor in the Commercial Litigation and Criminal Defense and Government Investigations Practice Groups. He concentrates his practice in the representation of individuals, corporations, and executives in a wide variety of federal and state criminal law and regulatory enforcement matters as well as civil litigation. He is the creator of From the Sidebar, a blog dedicated to trial, litigation, and the practice of law.
Hayes has a diverse legal background in criminal law, civil litigation, and teaching. He has tried numerous cases to verdict in both criminal and civil matters. He has defended clients in cases involving political corruption, health care and tax fraud, perjury, professional licensing boards, and complex civil actions. He has counseled clients in connection with investigations and prosecutions by the U.S. Department of Justice, various U.S. attorney's offices, the Pennsylvania and New York office of the attorney general, and many local district attorney's offices in Pennsylvania. Also, Hayes has extensive experience in complex civil litigation including intentional torts, wrongful death actions, products liability, contracts, and corporate matters. He is a member of the ABA Section of Litigation Trial Practice Committee and the YLD White Collar Crime Committee.
Hayes also serves as an adjunct professor at Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law, where he teaches Integrated Trial Advocacy, a program that incorporates evidence, civil procedure, and trial practice. He frequently lectures at and serves as a faculty member for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) and the District of Columbia Bar Association. In 2012, he was one of only three lawyers in the country selected as a member of NITA's Next Generation Faculty.
Prior to joining the firm in 2000, Hayes was an attorney at the Defender Association of Philadelphia. He also worked with the Pennsylvania Post-Conviction Defender Organization, as well as the Capital Habeas Unit, Federal Court Division of the Defender Association of Philadelphia from 1995 until 1997. His experience includes the representation of indigent criminal defendants at all stages (arraignment through jury trial) of state court proceedings and in post-conviction proceedings at the state and federal level. He continues to provide legal services to the underprivileged as part of his commitment to pro bono work and is the director for the firm's Prisoner Civil Rights Panel Program for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Dedicated to the next generation of lawyers, Hayes has been actively involved in the creation of trial advocacy training programs and continuing legal education at the firm. He has lectured at numerous advocacy programs dealing with trial techniques and deposition skills. Hayes founded the Cozen O’Connor Trial Academy (COTA), for which he created a week-long trial training program at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law. He also created the Cozen O’Connor Deposition Program (CODEP). Recently, Hayes developed CO24 an innovative CLE program which combined transactional lawyers and litigators negotiating a stock purchase agreement resulting in a civil action. He has worked with the firm's summer associates on their advocacy skills. He is the co-chair of the firm’s Professional Development and CLE Committee.
In 2010, 2011 and 2012, Hayes was selected as a Pennsylvania "Super Lawyer." He was one of 35 Pennsylvania attorneys selected as a "Lawyer on the Fast Track" by The Legal Intelligencer and Pennsylvania Law Weekly, and was named a 2005 and 2006 Pennsylvania "Rising Star" by Law & Politics. Hayes earned his law degree from Temple University School of Law. He is a member of the Temple Law Alumni Association's Executive Committee. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.