John M. Flynt

John Flynt is a commercial attorney with over twenty-five years’ experience negotiating a broad range of transactions for public and private entities. He advises clients on mergers and acquisitions, credit facilities and commercial loans, secured transactions, real estate transactions, securities and bond offerings, entity formation and equity relations, joint ventures, and general commercial matters. As a corporate advisor, John counsels clients on day-to-day business issues and complex transactions, covering a wide variety of business sectors. He also frequently serves as local counsel to out of state firms and renders closing legal opinions in connection with commercial and real estate transactions. John has a Martindale-Hubbell® AV Preeminent® peer rating and is recognized by his peers in The Best Lawyers in America© for the areas of Corporate Law, Commercial Finance Law, Commercial Transactions / UCC Law, Mergers and Acquisitions Law, Real Estate Law, and Administrative/Regulatory Law. John is currently serving a gubernatorial appointment as a Commissioner for Mississippi to the Uniform Law Commission.

John’s legal background includes seven years as in-house counsel to a New York Stock Exchange listed chemical manufacturer with facilities in four states and the Caribbean. As General Counsel & Corporate Secretary, he held full responsibility for the legal affairs of the company and served as the company’s SEC Compliance Officer. John advised senior management and the board of directors on business development and transactional matters, securities compliance, bank and bond financing, litigation strategy, large vendor and customer agreements, capital expansion projects, and numerous other corporate matters. Prior to leaving the company, John managed the company’s bankruptcy reorganization, including negotiation of debtor-in-possession credit facilities and assets sales, and the successful sale of the company upon exit.

John graduated magna cum laude from Cumberland School of Law of Samford University where he was a Presidential Scholar, a member of the Cumberland Law Review, a faculty-selected Cordell Hull Teaching Fellow, awarded Scholar of Merit Awards for Evidence and Constitutional Law, and recognized with the law school’s highest distinction for academic achievement and service to the law school by induction into the Curia Honoris Society.

Chris Fontan joined Brunini in 2006 in one of the Firm’s Litigation Departments. He received his Bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude in Business Administration from Mississippi College in 2001. Chris received his J.D., summa cum laude from the Mississippi College School of Law in 2006, where he served as the Managing Editor on the Board of the Mississippi College School of Law Review.

Chris has extensive labor and employment litigation experience including workers compensation defense.  In addition and, as part of his employment practice, Chris does training for employers on such topics as sexual harassment, Title VII, Family and Medical Leave Act, EEOC Compliance, Wage & Hour Compliance.  Chris also advises employers on corporate employment compliance, including internal policy audits and employee handbook review.

Lynne Green focuses her practice on tax, estate planning and probate law.

Among numerous awards and honors, Ms. Green is ranked in the prestigious Best Lawyers® in America directory for Trusts and Estates, and was honored in 2003 as one of “Mississippi’s 50 Leading Business Women” by the Mississippi Business Journal. She is a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and a former Regent for this body. She is past president of the Estate Planning Council of Mississippi, a past president of the Estates and Trusts Section of The Mississippi Bar, and is an active member of many professional organizations. Ms. Green is ranked by Chambers USA: High Net Worth in Band 1.

Curt Hébert, Jr. is the former Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the former Executive Vice President for Entergy Corporation.  Hébert joined Brunini effective August 1, 2012.

Hébert most recently served as Chief Executive Officer of Lexicon Strategy Group, an energy, finance and regulatory law advisory firm with offices in Mississippi, Louisiana and Washington, D.C.  In addition, he sits as a visiting scholar with the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, where he co-chairs the Energy Reliability Task Force.

Hébert has advised energy companies and corporations throughout the Southeast, Northeast, and Midwest, as well as companies in Europe, Asia and Middle East on numerous matters, including building accountability and transparency into corporate governance, improving the quality of regulatory filings, reporting and relationships, and executing complex, structured regulatory settlements.

Hébert has extensive contacts both inside and outside the industry, from regulators and government officials to analysts and executives.  He has developed broad and deep experience in all segments of the energy sector, spanning exploration and production, natural gas transportation, electric generation and distribution, chemicals, and mining.  He also brings a thorough knowledge of national and international energy markets, policy and regulatory processes.  Hébert has spent years in the telecommunications, transportation and water/sewage sector on regulatory filings and administrative hearings.

Jim Halford, named “Energy Lawyer of the Year” by Best Lawyers in America© and recognized by Chambers USA as one of “America’s Leading Lawyers for Business in Energy and Natural Resources,” regularly works on regulatory, contractual and litigation matters involving traditional energy, renewable energy, public utilities, energy transportation/transmission/distribution, broadband, telecommunications, and property rights.  Jim is currently involved in multi-billion dollar datacenter projects in Mississippi.  He was one of three Mississippi lawyers invited to participate with energy leaders in Governor Reeves’ Mississippi Energy Summit that launched a new statewide initiative to position Mississippi as a national leader in energy production and policy.

In 2024, he obtained state regulatory approval of a $1.2 billion asset sale involving one of the nation’s largest natural gas utilities, with continuing representation related to such assets before the Mississippi Public Service Commission.  Jim’s focus on energy infrastructure development has resulted in his oversight of right-of-way acquisitions, condemnations and other litigation for many of the major gas and liquids interstate and intrastate pipeline projects in Mississippi in the last several decades, as well as for large fiber optic projects by AT&T and other technology/broadband companies.

He has provided regulatory advice for a $90 million 100 megawatt solar generation facility in north Mississippi.  He represented the developer of the initial Petal salt dome cavern natural gas storage facilities in Forrest County, Mississippi.  Jim was lead counsel for the country’s first electric regional transmission organization (“RTO”) in gaining regulatory approval for Mississippi’s largest electric utility to join that RTO.  He has represented one of North America’s largest refiners and a major chemical company in state regulatory proceedings involving a proposed $6.7 billion first-of-a-kind lignite fuel electric generating facility in Mississippi by an electric utility.  Jim advises clients on renewal natural gas projects, as well as electric vehicle (EV) charging facilities and natural gas/propane vehicle stations.  He has represented residential/commercial property developers in the siting by an electric utility of electric transmission and substation facilities and their impact on such developments.

Jim’s practice also includes pipeline litigation, including prosecution of injunctive relief and eminent domain actions, as well as defense of surface damage and personal injury claims in state and federal courts.  He has lobbied the Mississippi Legislature on behalf of local natural gas utilities, interstate natural gas pipeline companies, and telecommunications companies.  He has chaired a panel on natural gas issues at the National Conference of Regulatory Attorneys.

He has served on the Firm’s five-person Board of Directors and regularly appears before state and federal courts, local governing boards, and the Mississippi Public Service Commission.  Jim is a board member of the Mississippi Energy Institute.

Ken Harmon has more than 40 years experience in real property and commercial transactions, estate planning, estates and trusts, and oil and gas law. He joined the Brunini firm in 1999. Ken has assisted clients in the administration of both large and small estates, structuring and closing commercial real estate transactions, and the formation and management of trusts, closely-held corporations, and limited liability companies.

From 2006 to 2012 Ken played an integral role in providing legal and project management services to contractors engaged by the Mississippi Development Authority to administer its Hurricane Katrina recovery programs. This project involved the processing of over 30,000 grant and loan applications and the disbursement of more than $2 billion. As a key advisor to MDA, Ken’s responsibilities included reviewing title issues, evaluating applicant eligibility issues, preparation of closing documents, supervision of the closing process, assisting in the development of policies, and developing workflow processes.

For many years Ken was also an adjunct professor at the Mississippi College School of Law where he taught Wills & Estates and Trusts.