Robert P. Burns

Professor of Law

Phone: (312) 503-6613
E-mail: r-burns@law.northwestern.edu

SSRN Author Page | Curriculum Vitae (pdf)

Related Links: Center for Legal Studies

Robert Burns is Professor of Law and teaches in the Northwestern Program on Advocacy and Professionalism. He teaches courses in evidence, civil procedure, criminal procedure, administrative procedure, and professional responsibility. In 1996, 1998, and 2002 he was voted the Robert Childress Memorial Award for Teaching Excellence. He has been voted the Outstanding Professor of a Small Class and received a Dean’s Teaching Award. He has been both the Perkins-Bauer Teaching Professor and the Stanford Clinton, Sr. Research Professor. He is author of A Theory of the Trial (Princeton); student texts in Professional Responsibility, Trial Advocacy, and Evidence; and numerous essays and articles in books, law reviews, and other journals.

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

Trial Advocacy
Legal Ethics
Evidence

Jurisprudence
Procedure

COURSES

PUBLICATIONS

Representative Publications

A THEORY OF THE TRIAL, Princeton, 1999
PROBLEMS & MATERIALS IN EVIDENCE & TRIAL ADVOCACY, NITA, 2004
EXERCISES & PROBLEMS IN PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY, NITA, 2001
Some Ethical Issues Surrounding Mediation, Fordham Law Review, 2001
The Lawfulness of the American Trial, American Criminal Law Review 2001

Recent Publications

The Death of the American Trial
The Tasks of a Philosophy of Law in On Philosophy , American Law , 2009
Cranbrooke v. Intellex: Problems and Case File, 2009
Best Practices: Cross-Examination, Moving Up to the Next Level , NITA NOTES , February 2009
Analyzing the Trial, Interdisciplinary Methods: Why a Philosopher in the United States Might Study the Trial , 31 POLITICAL AND LEGAL ANTHROPOLOGY REVIEW 303, 2008

View more publications by Robert P. Burns

EDUCATION

AB magna cum laude, Fordham University
JD, University of Chicago
PhD with honors, University of Chicago

PRIOR APPOINTMENTS

Stanford Clinton Sr. Research Professor, 1991-92
Perkins-Bauer Teaching Professor of Law, 1988-89
Associate Professor of Law, 1980-83
General Counsel, Illinois Legislative Commission to Revise the Public Aid Code, 1979-80
Staff Attorney, Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago, 1974-79

RECENT CONSULTING ACTIVITIES

Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago
Dewey Ballantine
Jenner & Block