Bar Admissions:

Maine
Massachusetts
Circuit Court of Appeals
U.S. District Court
U.S. Supreme Court

Experience:

Thomas D. Burns is a founding partner of Burns & Levinson. With Lawrence M. Levinson, he established the firm in 1960. One of Boston's preeminent trial lawyers, Mr. Burns was engaged daily in the trial of all kinds of litigation. He represented some of the country's largest insurance companies, banks, auto manufacturers, major corporations, colleges, law firms, railroads, hospitals, newspapers, and individuals in serious and complex matters, throughout the various trial courts of Massachusetts and other New England states in jury trials. He has argued appeals in more than one hundred cases in the Supreme Judicial Court, U.S. Court of Appeals, and the Massachusetts Appeals Court.

Governor Francis W. Sargent appointed Mr. Burns to the Judicial Council of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and twice offered him a seat on the Superior Court. Governor Edward J. King appointed him vice chairman of the Massachusetts Judicial Nominating Commission. He also served as special counsel to the Boston City Council and was chairman of the judicial selection committee of the Boston and Massachusetts Bar Associations.

Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly named Mr. Burns one of Massachusetts' most influential lawyers of the past twenty-five years, and he has appeared in The Best Lawyers in America for over twenty years.

Memberships:

• Boston City Club
• Coral Beach Club, Bermuda
• DKE fraternity, Brown University
• Duxbury Yacht Club
• North Andover Country Club
• The Country Club, Brookline
• Union Club of Boston, former member and governor
• American College of Trial Lawyers, Fellow; Massachusetts state chairman, National Board of Regents, and national treasurer
• American Textile History Museum, former trustee
• The Citizens Advisory Board of WGBH-TV, former member
• Massachusetts Historical Society
• The Pike School Andover, former trustee
• Phillips Andover Academy's Alumni Council and Development Board, President of the Class of 1938

Additional Information:

• Admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1944, while on active duty as a Naval officer. Mr. Burns was on active duty in the U.S. Navy as a Lieutenant, he served in the Mediterranean and Pacific aboard an LC1(L).
• Thomas D. Burns gave the invocation American College of Trial Lawyers 2004 Annual Meeting in St. Louis, Missouri on October 21, 2004. He has given many talks and addresses on Civil War and World War history. Thomas D. Burns has also visited many WWI battlefields and historical sites.

Education:

• Student, Andover Public Schools, Phillips Andover and Brown University
• Summer Course on English/History, Oxford University in England
• Boston University School of Law, 1943

Awards:

• The Award for Distinguished Professional Service, Boston University School of Law, 1995