Martin E. Burke
Partner
Overview
Martin "Marty" Burke is a litigation attorney in Holland & Knight's Tampa and Birmingham offices. Mr. Burke has more than 28 years of experience in litigating and trying many kinds of cases in federal and state courts. He has deep and wide experience litigating matters arising in many different contexts, industries and venues across the country.
Mr. Burke regularly represents clients in high-risk litigation matters in state and federal courts throughout the country at both the trial and appellate levels. In addition, Mr. Burke has vast experience in arbitration; mediation; proactive corporate policies, procedures and technologies useful for achieving a high state of litigation preparedness; and e-discovery.
Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Mr. Burke was a litigation attorney in the Tampa and Birmingham offices of a Southeast regional law firm.
Following law school, Mr. Burke was a law clerk for W. Harold Albritton III in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama.
While pursuing his undergraduate studies, Mr. Burke served as a patrol officer with the Birmingham Police Department. Before college, he served as a rifleman in the U.S. Marine Corps.
Representative Experience
- Representing a natural gas utility in mass tort litigation arising from an explosion at a shopping mall
- Representing several waste management companies in various class actions involving claims that deceptive fees were charged to customers
- Representing a foundry allegedly fraudulently induced into a military contract to cast bomb bodies to impossible specifications
- Representing a number of franchised gasoline station owners alleging that their franchisor, a major oil and petrochemical company, had engaged in unfair competition and commercial bad faith by favoring competing company-owned stations to the disadvantage of clients
- Representing a pipe manufacturer in a wrongful death case arising from the improper unloading of pipe
- Representing a water works product manufacturer in a case of wrongful death arising from improper installation of its product
- Representing an international tractor truck manufacturer in a wrongful death case alleging that defective seatbelts had caused the plaintiff's death in an allegedly survivable accident
- Representing a number of manufacturers of fire hydrants in prolonged five-year litigation against a major oil and petrochemical company whose grease allegedly caused excessive corrosion of internal parts, necessitating multimillion-dollar recalls of hydrants in use throughout the country and world
- Representing a bankruptcy trustee that sued the parent companies, investors and officers of a corporate debtor in bankruptcy that had operated a failed coal mine; argued on behalf of the trustee that the equity stakeholders and officers had breached fiduciary duties to the debtor and its creditors in a deepening insolvency situation
- Representing an electric utility company accused of wantonly and negligently causing a fire that burned down the plaintiffs' home
Credentials
- University of Virginia School of Law, J.D.
- The University of Alabama at Birmingham, B.S., Accounting, magna cum laude
- Alabama
- Florida
- Mississippi
- All State Courts in Florida
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida
- U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida
- U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida
- All State Courts in Alabama
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama
- U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama
- U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama
- All State Courts in Mississippi
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi
- U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
- Federal Bar Association (FBA), Federal Litigation Section, Federal Torts Committee, Chair
- The Florida Bar
- Alabama State Bar
- The Mississippi Bar
- Birmingham Bar Association
- Hillsborough County Bar Association, Member; Trial and Litigation Section, Board Member, 2023-2024
- American Bar Association
- Defense Research Institute (DRI)
- Cove Behavioral Health Inc., Advisory Board Member
- The Best Lawyers in America guide, Commercial Litigation, 2021, 2025
- Mid-South Super Lawyers magazine, Business Litigation, 2018-2021
- Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent Peer Review Rated
- Robert E. Goldsten Award, University of Virginia School of Law
