Practice
A full-time Judicate West neutral. Based in San Diego. He sits in person or remotely wherever the matter is, including outside the United States.
Service
Judge Burns views mediation as assisted negotiation. Preparation, patience, and persistence are the keys. By listening, questioning, and understanding the importance of pacing, he focuses the parties on what will actually move a dispute toward resolution.
Service
Counsel request Judge Burns to sit as arbitrator in complex commercial, employment, class, and tort matters that need a decision-maker who has tried hundreds of cases and written from both the trial and appellate benches.
Service
From discovery masters to receivership supervision and private trials, Judge Burns brings the same case-management rigor he applied as Chief Judge of the Southern District of California.
Philosophy
Preparation, patience, and persistence are the keys. By listening, questioning, and understanding the importance of pacing, a mediator focuses attention on the important aspects of a dispute and helps parties achieve a resolution.
The first years of his judicial career were spent as a civil settlement judge. That is the work he returned to at Judicate West — with the additional authority of having tried the cases that do not settle.
Practice areas
Complex commercial disputes, banking, corporate and fiduciary obligations, and high-stakes contractual litigation.
Shareholder securities actions, regulatory enforcement, and matters informed by service as a director and corporate secretary of a publicly traded bank.
Multi-district litigation, class actions, and coordinated proceedings that demand a judge who has managed them from the bench.
Employment litigation across the spectrum — from individual claims to class and representative actions.
Serious personal injury, medical malpractice, and complex tort cases, including national product litigation.
Coverage, bad faith, and insurance-driven commercial disputes.
Real property, development, and related commercial controversies.
Trademark and copyright disputes requiring a trial-tested neutral.
Constitutional and civil-rights litigation, including precedential public-law matters.
Judicate West
Judge Burns is a full-time member of Judicate West’s Federal Practice Group. Parties retain him across the country and abroad — including a matter in London — not only in San Diego. Ask for him by name when you submit the case. His mediation case manager is Heather Reed; arbitration and private judging go through Heidi Adams.