Robert P. Burns

William W. Gurley Memorial Professor of Law Emeritus


Biography

Robert Burns is the William W. Gurley Memorial Professor of Law at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. He teaches evidence and professional responsibility in the Bartlit Center for Trial Advocacy and courses in civil, criminal, and administrative procedure. He was voted the Robert Childres Memorial Award for Teaching Excellence three times, received the Dean's Teaching Award twice, and has been voted the Outstanding Professor of a Small Class. He is author of A Theory of the Trial (Princeton), Kafka's Law: The Trial and American Criminal Justice (Chicago), and The Death of the American Trial (Chicago). The latter received a Choice Outstanding Academic Title Award in the Social and Behavioral Sciences. He is also author of student texts and workbooks in Evidence, Professional Responsibility, and Trial Advocacy and many articles and book chapters. 


Areas of Expertise

  • Procedure
  • Jurisprudence
  • Evidence
  • Trial Advocacy
  • Legal Ethics


Selected Publications

  • Kafka's Law: The Trial and American Criminal Justice (University of Chicago Press 2014).
  • The Death of the American Trial (University of Chicago Press 2009).
  • A Theory of the Trial (Princeton University Press 1999).
  • Problems and Materials in Evidence and Trial Advocacy, 4th edition (NITA 2004) (with Steven Lubet).
  • The Tasks of a Philosophy of Law in On Philosophy, in American Law, edited by Francis J. Mootz (Cambridge University Press 2009).
  • The Distinctiveness of Trial Narrative , in The Truth on Trial: Truth and Due Process, edited by Antony Duff et al. (Hart Publishing 2005).

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Education

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

Prior Appointments

  • William W. Gurley Memorial Professor of Law, Northwestern University School of Law
  • Professor of Law, Northwestern University School of Law
  • Stanford Clinton Sr. Research Professor, 1991-1992, Northwestern University School of Law
  • Perkins-Bauer Teaching Professor of Law, 1988-1989, Northwestern University School of Law
  • Associate Professor of Law, 1980-1983, Northwestern University School of Law
  • General Counsel, 1979-1980, Illinois Legislative Commission to Revise the Public Aid Code
  • Staff Attorney, 1974-1979, Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago

Recent Consulting Activities

  • Jenner & Block
  • Schiff Hardin
  • Cook Country Public Defender

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