about us:

Amazing clients

Legal experience, industry perspective and committed professionals 100 percent loyal to you and your cause.

   

overview

At Burns & Levinson, we practice law differently. While our attorneys agree that results drive our business, building relationships with our clients and providing value added service is the key to our success. We work hard to provide the legal experience and industry knowledge you need, as well as the personal attention you deserve – adding value to your life and the life of your business. Your personal and business success is our top priority. So whatever your legal need, consider it done.

As a Boston-based firm with more than 125 attorneys, we are large enough to represent clients in complex and sophisticated matters, yet small enough to be very responsive, providing direct partner-level, proactive advice.

Our attorneys are experienced and extremely motivated. They’re willing to go beyond their traditional role and do whatever it takes to get results. No matter what your legal need, we’ve got you covered.

Here are a few examples of how we get things done:

  • Act as your legal counsel and business advisor
  • Provide strategic solutions for your legal issues
  • Understand your business and industry
  • Think globally, looking at the full picture, not just the matter at hand
  • Advise our individual clients in their personal lives
  • Identify how personal decisions may affect other matters, including your business
  • Go the extra mile to help our clients find the resources and make the connections they need

management team

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Explore more about what an amazing experience come together.

community service

Burns & Levinson has a long tradition of community service and pro bono legal representation of clients with limited means.

In the area of community service, the firm focuses on K through 12 education in traditional and charter public schools with predominantly minority student populations. The Boston office has a long-term partnership with Brighton High School, for which it was honored by the Boston Bar Association in 2005. The firm’s commitment to Brighton High School students is strong, in that we provide internships for a select number of students each year, some have even gone on to work here full-time.

Burns & Levinson seeks to provide effective pro bono representation to persons of limited means by concentrating its efforts in those areas of the law where it possesses significant expertise. Those areas include:

  • Real Estate Our attorneys represent indigent defendants in housing court proceedings and often assist pro bono clients in certain land use, conservation and other real estate matters.
  • Probate We serve as guardians for the elderly and handicapped by court appointment and assist indigent parties in obtaining custody of abused and abandoned children.
  • Education Our firm is a leader in the field of charter schools, independent public schools that serve students who are disproportionately poor and members of minority groups.
  • Nonprofits: We counsel a variety of nonprofit organizations and members of the firm serve as trustees and directors of nonprofits in the areas of healthcare and education.
  • Improvement of the Law and the Legal System: Our attorneys are active in organizations that work to improve the law and the legal system, including the Massachusetts Bar Foundation.

Burns & Levinson accepts pro bono cases both from recognized outside referral sources, such as the Volunteer Lawyers Project, the Women’s Bar Association and Senior Partners for Justice, and from contacts generated internally by partners and associates in the firm. The firm provides attorneys wide latitude to accept pro bono cases regardless of the political implications of the potential outcome of a matter.

How We Amaze Our Clients

Respect For Your Life

At Burns & Levinson, personal career and family matters are an integral part of our service. From convenient North Shore/Merrimack Valley, South Shore and Metro West offices, our experienced, compassionate lawyers provide top-of-the-line family and divorce representation, trust and estate planning, and probate and trust litigation assistance.

In addition, we are unmatched in representing top business executives in compensation, advocacy, white collar and other career-related matters as well as guiding scientists and entrepreneurs in commercializing their visions.  Our lawyers have seen virtually every variant of the difficult issues at the crossroads of business and personal, and we represent you with discretion, consummate skill, creativity and compassion.

Big-Firm Know-How

Many of our partners are veterans of major regional and national firms who are equipped to handle your most challenging transactions, resolve sensitive disputes and go toe-to-toe with anyone.

We offer the skills of a much larger firm, but with a lower fee structure and more streamlined communication between you and the partner in charge.  We understand that your issues are often not confined to business hours, so we’re available 24/7 to work on matters that are important to you.

Keen Business Sensibility

Our business lawyers serve as your strategic partners, devising creative, results-focused solutions that take your business to the next level.  Apart from legal review, analysis and recommendations, our collective decades of transactional experience and deep industry involvement allow us to provide practical assistance, introducing you to others in our network who can find business partners to raise capital, source deals, provide research and development services, perform clinical studies, and more.

We understand that you are in business to thrive. You need advisors with the requisite business acumen and experience, and the creativity to tell you how to do things, not why you shouldn’t. At Burns & Levinson, we cultivate a can-do approach that meshes perfectly with our clients’ entrepreneurial sensibilities. As deal closers, we do the work and make the necessary connections to get to “yes.”

A Focus On Relationships

Successful relationships are built on how well people understand one another’s objectives and concerns, and work collaboratively to address them.  Too often, legal services are driven by the billable hour, not the client’s overall best interests. Burns & Levinson is different.

Combining deep industry knowledge in the markets we serve with experienced legal judgment, we offer legal advice based on the big picture. Our mission is first to understand the many facets of your business and your life, and then to become strategic partners in your long-term business and personal success.

While growth in the legal industry has become commonplace, we remain by design an authentic mid-sized firm: large enough to offer the services you need, and small enough to provide the personal attention you deserve. We are proud to serve as legal counsel for dynamic, growth-oriented enterprises, including privately and publicly held companies, start-ups, emerging growth enterprises and family businesses, along with their management teams and financing sources; colleges, universities and other public institutions; as well as entrepreneurs, scientists and individuals facing career and personal challenges.

Partner-Level Attention

Featuring a partner-to-associate ratio of less than 1:1, our service model provides our clients with consistent, cost-effective access to entrepreneurial, results-driven partners.

You’ll work directly with advisors who have a sincere interest in adding value to your life and the life of your business, and do so using a solid command of your market, the players and the law. Whatever your legal issue—we’ll provide a practical answer in real time with the discretion to tackle your most sensitive and pressing matters.

affiliates

Law Firm Alliance

The firm is a proud member of the Law Firm Alliance (“LFA”), a leading global network of full-service law firms. Established in 2000, the LFA’s goal is to provide clients of member firms with access to high quality, cost-effective legal services in jurisdictions worldwide. The Alliance brings together the expertise of more than 2,500 attorneys offering a wide range of legal and industry specialties.

Burns & Levinson’s LFA affiliation allows us to offer our clients an integrated global service, connecting them with the expertise of colleagues in full-service law firms throughout numerous jurisdictions. Our clients receive the responsiveness and efficiency important to them, while allowing for meaningful personal relationships typically associated with smaller firms, supported by access to the combined knowledge and resources of a larger, multinational firm, without the associated fees.

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