Robert P. Burns

William W. Gurley Memorial Professor of Law Emeritus

Biography

Robert Burns is the William W. Gurley Memorial Professor of Law Emeritus at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. He taught evidence and professional responsibility in the Bartlit Center for Trial Advocacy and courses in civil, criminal, and administrative procedure. He continues to teach lawyers in Northwestern LL.M. programs. He is the recipient of the A.B.A. Robert B. McKay Award for Commitment to Justice, Scholarship and the Legal Profession (2026).  He was voted the Robert Childress Memorial Award for Teaching Excellence three times and received the Dean's Teaching Award twice.  He is author of Courts and Bureaucracies: Renewing the Rule of Law in Our Times (Chicago), 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

Courses

Selected Publications

  • Courts and Bureaucracies: Renewing the Rule of Law in Our Times (forthcoming 2026).
  • Kafka's Law: The Trial and American Criminal Justice (2014).
  • The Death of the American Trial (2009).
  • A Theory of the Trial (1999).
  • Problems and Materials in Evidence and Trial Advocacy (4th edition, 2004) (Co-authored by: Steven Lubet).
  • The Tasks of a Philosophy of Law in On Philosophy, in American Law (Francis J. Mootz ed., 2009).

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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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