Overview
Hunter Bruton began his legal career at Smith Anderson before spending a decade in Washington, D.C., practicing at an international law firm, working for the U.S. Department of Justice and clerking for top federal judges, including Justice Samuel Alito of the U.S. Supreme Court. Hunter focuses his litigation practice on legal strategy, critical motions and appellate advocacy. He has experience in federal and state cases involving constitutional law, administrative law, class actions, mass tort, trade secret misappropriation and other complex commercial litigation.
Hunter has argued before multiple appellate courts including the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, the Ninth Circuit and the Federal Circuit. He has also filed numerous briefs in federal and state cases nationwide.
Hunter brings a wealth of experience as a former clerk to Justice Alito, and to judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He was also a Bristow Fellow in the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of the Solicitor General responsible for representing the United States' interests in the Supreme Court.
He graduated summa cum laude from Duke University School of Law, where he was the valedictorian of his class and notes editor of the Duke Law Journal. Hunter was also a Morehead-Cain Scholar at the University of North Carolina where he graduated with highest honors.
Areas of Focus
- Administrative Law
- Appellate Advocacy
- Corporate and Securities Litigation
- Employment Litigation
- Investigations
- Litigation
- Mass Tort & Catastrophic Loss
- Non-Compete & Trade Secrets
- Patent Litigation
- Pharmaceutical & Medical Device Litigation
- Product Liability
- Toxic Torts, PFAS and Asbestos Litigation
- Trademark & Copyright Litigation
Credentials
Education
- Duke University School of Law, J.D., 2016
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, B.A., Religious Studies and Political Science, 2012
Bar & Court Admissions
- District of Columbia
- North Carolina
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
- U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
- U.S. District Courts for the Eastern, Middle and Western Districts of North Carolina
Experience
- Secured a win in a case of first impression in the Federal Circuit that narrowed the federal government's exemption from the Fifth Amendment's Taking Clause.
- Represented a client in a successful Fifth Circuit appeal challenging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Authority.
- Secured a stay pending appeal in a constitutional and administrative law challenge to an unlawfully promulgated rule.
- Represented a client in a Fifth Circuit appeal implicating a circuit split on an Administrative Procedure Act sovereign immunity question.
- Represented the prevailing party in a landmark Ninth Circuit appeal on a federal preemption question implicating a circuit split.
- Successfully defended a client in a Ninth Circuit appeal on trade secret misappropriation.
- Obtained dismissal on state standing grounds in a landmark Fair Credit Reporting Act case.
- Secured a judgement holding that the Consumer Product Safety Commission was unconstitutionally structured.
- Secured a remand in a Seventh Circuit appeal implicating constitutional and administrative law issues.
