By American Bar Association
The American Bar Association Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section (TIPS) honored Robert Burns with its prestigious Robert B. McKay Law Professor Award on Feb. 7 at the ABA Midyear Meeting in San Antonio. The award recognizes law professors who have shown commitment to the advancement of justice, scholarship and the legal profession, demonstrated by outstanding contributions to the fields of tort, trial practice or insurance law.
“Professor Robert Burns has made significant contributions to educating young lawyers in both American trial practice and ethical advocacy,” said Marcy Hogan Greer, chair of the ABA Tort Trial and Insurance Practice. “We could not be more honored to recognize him with our Robert B. McKay Law Professor Award.”
Burns is the William W. Gurley Memorial Professor of Law at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, where he teaches evidence and professional responsibility in the Bartlit Center for Trial Advocacy, along with civil, criminal and administrative procedure.
He has won the Robert Childres Memorial Award for Teaching Excellence three times, the Dean’s Teaching Award twice and was named 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) — which received a Choice Outstanding Academic Title Award in Social and Behavioral Sciences. Burns has also written student texts, workbooks in evidence, professional responsibility and trial advocacy and numerous articles and book chapters.
Burns’ legal career includes roles as general counsel for the Illinois Legislative Commission and staff attorney for the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago, with broad expertise in civil rights, administrative law and criminal trials that inform his practical perspective on legal practice.
His forthcoming book with the working title “Courts and Bureaucracies, Renewing the Rule of Law in Our Time” will also be published by the University of Chicago Press, with an anticipated release in fall 2026.
Burns earned an A.B. magna cum laude from Fordham University, a J.D. from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. with honors from the University of Chicago.
(https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/2026/02/aba-to-honor-robert-burns-with-mckay-award/)
The American Bar Association Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section (TIPS) honored Robert Burns with its prestigious Robert B. McKay Law Professor Award on Feb. 7 at the ABA Midyear Meeting in San Antonio. The award recognizes law professors who have shown commitment to the advancement of justice, scholarship and the legal profession, demonstrated by outstanding contributions to the fields of tort, trial practice or insurance law.
“Professor Robert Burns has made significant contributions to educating young lawyers in both American trial practice and ethical advocacy,” said Marcy Hogan Greer, chair of the ABA Tort Trial and Insurance Practice. “We could not be more honored to recognize him with our Robert B. McKay Law Professor Award.”
Burns is the William W. Gurley Memorial Professor of Law at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, where he teaches evidence and professional responsibility in the Bartlit Center for Trial Advocacy, along with civil, criminal and administrative procedure.
He has won the Robert Childres Memorial Award for Teaching Excellence three times, the Dean’s Teaching Award twice and was named 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) — which received a Choice Outstanding Academic Title Award in Social and Behavioral Sciences. Burns has also written student texts, workbooks in evidence, professional responsibility and trial advocacy and numerous articles and book chapters.
Burns’ legal career includes roles as general counsel for the Illinois Legislative Commission and staff attorney for the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago, with broad expertise in civil rights, administrative law and criminal trials that inform his practical perspective on legal practice.
His forthcoming book with the working title “Courts and Bureaucracies, Renewing the Rule of Law in Our Time” will also be published by the University of Chicago Press, with an anticipated release in fall 2026.
Burns earned an A.B. magna cum laude from Fordham University, a J.D. from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. with honors from the University of Chicago.
(https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/2026/02/aba-to-honor-robert-burns-with-mckay-award/)
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