James M. Burns

Jim Burns is chair of the Williams Mullen Antitrust Practice Group. He has practiced antitrust law for over 20 years and has litigated antitrust and related claims in trial and appellate courts all across the country. Mr. Burns also advises clients on antitrust compliance issues, and has represented clients before the DOJ Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission on a wide variety of antitrust matters, including mergers. He writes extensively on antitrust issues, particularly in the insurance and health care areas, and frequently comments on such matters in the national press. His views have appeared in The National Law Journal, Business Insurance, Law360, Modern Healthcare, the American Medical News and the BNA Daily Report for Executives, among other publications. Mr. Burns is currently the vice chair of the American Bar Association Antitrust Section's Legislative Committee, and previously served as the chair of the Antitrust Section's Insurance Industry Committee. He is also the chair of the DRI Commercial Litigation Committee’s Antitrust and Trade Regulation Group and serves on the Editorial Advisory Board for BNA Pharmaceutical Law Reporter. Martindale Hubbell has rated Mr. Burns an AV attorney, its highest rating.

Jim Burns is chair of the Williams Mullen Antitrust Practice Group. He has practiced antitrust law for over 20 years and has litigated antitrust and related claims in trial and appellate courts all across the country. Mr. Burns also advises clients on antitrust compliance issues, and has represented clients before the DOJ Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission on a wide variety of antitrust matters, including mergers. He writes extensively on antitrust issues, particularly in the insurance and health care areas, and frequently comments on such matters in the national press. His views have appeared in The National Law Journal, Business Insurance, Law360, Modern Healthcare, the American Medical News and the BNA Daily Report for Executives, among other publications. Mr. Burns is currently the vice chair of the American Bar Association Antitrust Section's Legislative Committee, and previously served as the chair of the Antitrust Section's Insurance Industry Committee. He is also the chair of the DRI Commercial Litigation Committee’s Antitrust and Trade Regulation Group and serves on the Editorial Advisory Board for BNA Pharmaceutical Law Reporter. Martindale Hubbell has rated Mr. Burns an AV attorney, its highest rating.

Mr. Burns has litigated every major type of antitrust claim, including claims of price-fixing, monopolization, unfair competition, price discrimination, market allocations, tying arrangements, group boycotts, exclusive dealing and concerted refusals to deal. He has litigated both individual actions and class actions, and while he most frequently represents defendants in such matters he has represented plaintiffs that have been harmed by anticompetitive conduct as well. Mr. Burns has a similarly broad range of experience in antitrust counseling matters. He has worked extensively with in-house corporate counsel on issues relating to the Federal Trade Commission/Department of Justice Antitrust Division Guidelines for Collaborations with Competitors, the Statements of Enforcement Policy in Health Care, the Guidelines for the Licensing of Intellectual Property and the Horizontal Merger Guidelines. Mr. Burns also has an active antitrust compliance practice. He has conducted antitrust seminars, performed antitrust audits, and led antitrust discussion groups for executives and staff of many Fortune 500 companies. He has also represented clients seeking clearance for proposed merger transactions under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act.

Mr. Burns is an active member of the American Bar Association’s Antitrust Section and is an American Bar Foundation Fellow. In 2011, he was named vice chair of the ABA Antitrust Section's Legislative Committee and previously served as chair of the Antitrust Section’s Insurance Industry Committee. Mr. Burns is a co-author of the ABA’s Insurance Antitrust Handbook (first and second editions), a leading treatise on the application of the antitrust laws to the insurance industry, and was a contributing author to Antitrust Law Developments (sixth edition), the ABA Antitrust Section’s multi-volume treatise on the antitrust laws. He has published guest columns on antitrust issues in Competition Law360, Health Law360, Insurance Law360, The Business Suit (DRI) and the Hampton Roads Business Journal, and for over 15 years has published a bi-monthly newsletter on antitrust developments in the insurance industry.

Mr. Burns earned an A.B., cum laude, from Colgate University and a J.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law. While in law school, Mr. Burns was a member of the UCLA National Moot Court team, after being awarded the Best Brief Award and being named a Distinguished Advocate in the UCLA Moot Court competition.