Judge Bios

Mr. Burgess was born in Greenville, South Carolina. After attending public schools in Greenville, he attended Phillips Exeter Academy. He then entered Princeton University where he received an A.B. degree in 1965. After graduation from Princeton, he served as a Peace Corpse volunteer in Thailand from 1965-1967, where he was a school teacher. Mr. Burgess also taught school in North Carolina.

In 1971, he received a J.D. degree from Harvard and was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar that same year. He has been a member of the Bar of the District of Columbia since 1977.

After graduating from Harvard Law School, Mr. Burgess became a law clerk to then United States District Judge Levin H. Campbell in the District of Massachusetts. When Judge Campbell was appointed to the First Circuit Court of Appeals in 1972, Mr. Burgess continued as his clerk, ending the clerkship in 1973.

From 1973-1977, Mr. Burgess was an associate with the law firm of Palmer and Dodge of Boston, specializing in litigation. In 1977, he joined the Public Defender Service of the District of Columbia, where he served in both the trial and appellate divisions. From

August, 1982 until his appointment to the bench, Mr. Burgess was chief of the Appellate Division of the Public Defender Service.

Mr. Burgess has taught trial advocacy for the Continuing Legal Education programs of the District of Columbia and Massachusetts Bar Associations. He has also taught trial advocacy at the Harvard Law School. He has been a panelist at the Bar Association of the District of Columbia’s Criminal Practice Institute and has contributed to it’s manual.

Mr. Burgess is married to Diana Martin of the District of Columbia. She is a physician specializing in family practice. They have two children, Sarah, age 4, and Thomas, eighteen months.