Bar Admissions

North Carolina

District of Columbia

Education

Duke University, J.D., summa cum laude, 2016; Valedictorian; Mordecai Scholar; Order of the Coif; Notes Editor, Duke Law Journal

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, B.A., with highest distinction, 2012; Morehead-Cain Scholar; Phi Beta Kappa

Profile

Hunter Bruton guides clients through complex litigation and appeals. He 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 action, 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 U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel 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.

Prior to joining Robinson Bradshaw, Hunter was an attorney in the Issues & Appeals Practice at Jones Day in Washington, D.C. 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.

Honors & Awards

Clerkships

  • Law Clerk, The Honorable Samuel A. Alito Jr., Supreme Court of the United States, 2019-20
  • Law Clerk, The Honorable Ellen S. Huvelle, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, 2017-18
  • Law Clerk, The Honorable Thomas F. Hogan, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, 2017-18
  • Law Clerk, The Honorable Allyson K. Duncan, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, 2016-17

Experience

Experience

  • 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 implicating a circuit split.

  • Successfully defended a client in a Ninth Circuit appeal on trade secret misappropriation.

  • Successfully limited a nationwide class action to a California-only class.

  • Obtained dismissal on state standing grounds in a landmark Fair Credit Reporting Act case.

  • Secured a judgment holding that the Consumer Product Safety Commission was unconstitutionally structured.

  • Secured a remand in a Seventh Circuit appeal implicating constitutional and administrative law issues.

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