however I'm still getting an exceptions related to hibernate validator which appears to be related to the differences between hibernate bundled in the ear - 3.5.6 - and hibernate in JBoss 6.0.0.Final - 3.6.0 + hibernate Validator 4.1.0 - see below.
org.hibernate.AnnotationException: java.lang.NoSuchMethodException: org.hibernate.validator.ClassValidator.<init>(java.lang.Class, java.util.ResourceBundle, org.hibernate.validator.MessageInterpolator, java.util.Map, org.hibernate.annotations.common.reflection.ReflectionManager)
at org.hibernate.cfg.AnnotationConfiguration.applyHibernateValidatorLegacyConstraintsOnDDL(AnnotationConfiguration.java:455) [:3.5.6-Final]
It looks like your Hibernate is kicking in, but the problem is now Validator.
You're saying you're also bundling Hibernate Validator that matches Hibernate 3.5.6-Final' usage?