Robert J Burns

Robert J. Burns is a litigation attorney in Holland & Knight’s New York office and a member of the firm’s Litigation and Dispute Resolution Practice. Mr. Burns is an experienced trial lawyer who focuses on navigating clients through complex business and commercial disputes, shareholder and corporate governance matters, antitrust and consumer protection cases, and high-stakes trust, estate and fiduciary disputes.

In his 17 years of broad litigation experience, Mr. Burns has represented a wide range of U.S. and foreign clients, including airlines, insurers, manufacturers, financial institutions, institutional trustees, technology developers, and major music and literary artists. He has deep experience in all phases of the litigation process – from pre-trial discovery and motion practice through trial and appeal.

In the past five years, Mr. Burns has served as lead or co-lead counsel in more than 10 trials and arbitration hearings. He has briefed and argued numerous appeals before federal and state appellate courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and New York’s Court of Appeals and Appellate Divisions. He has also negotiated the resolutions of many multimillion-dollar business disputes short of formal litigation.

Mr. Burns serves as the New York office’s representative on the firm’s E-Discovery and Technology Committee. In that capacity, he counsels numerous firm clients on e-discovery and data preservation best practices, the development of proactive litigation readiness and early case assessment strategies, and cutting-edge legal and technical developments in this evolving area. Mr. Burns has authored articles and delivered presentations on various aspects of the intersection of technology and law.

Mr. Burns’ pro bono and community work includes legal work on behalf of the New York City Ballet, several New York City charter schools and several prominent immigrants’ rights organizations. He recently acted as co-lead counsel in a high-profile trial seeking damages for a U.S. citizen who was wrongly arrested and detained for several years by federal immigration enforcement authorities.

Mr. Burns began his career in the litigation department of Davis Polk & Wardwell, where his work involved antitrust, securities and general commercial cases. Immediately prior to joining Holland & Knight in 2004, Mr. Burns worked as a solo practitioner in Boston, representing individual and business clients in a broad range of civil and criminal litigation matters.

During his tenure at Holland & Knight, Mr. Burns was seconded for several months to the in-house legal department of a major London-based insurer, where he counseled claims and underwriting personnel on diverse litigation, transactional and coverage matters.

During law school, he received academic awards in the fields of contract law, property law, evidence, legal writing and New York practice.