Hunter Dentino is an intellectual property litigation associate in the Austin office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. He represents clients in patent, trade secret and other complex commercial disputes. Leveraging his engineering background and prior patent prosecution experience, Hunter represents clients in high-stakes disputes before U.S. federal district courts and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) and has advised on IP due diligence and patent portfolio analysis.
Hunter has worked with clients ranging from multinational corporations to emerging startups. He previously worked as a patent agent, preparing and prosecuting more than 100 patent families across industries including energy production, semiconductor manufacturing, aerospace, medical devices and liquid gas storage. His patent prosecution background gives him unique insight into claim construction and the prosecution histories of patents, informing his approach to litigation strategy.
During law school, Hunter was managing editor of the Texas Intellectual Property Law Journal and president of the Intellectual Property Law Society. He also worked with Texas Law’s Entrepreneurship and Community Development Clinic to advise local small businesses on trademark and brand strategy. Hunter received the 2024 Louis T. Pirkey Prize in Intellectual Property Law from the Austin Intellectual Property Law Association (IPLA) for his paper analyzing success rates and legal standards in inter partes reviews before the PTAB compared to district court litigation.
