John W. Burke III
jburke@attorneyslee.com
 
Practice Areas
Alternative Dispute Resolution
Endangered Species Act
Land Use Law
 
Experience
Mr. Burke has over 25 years of experience as a negotiator and attorney with the Department of Interior’s Solicitor’s Office. He has distinguished himself as an outstanding facilitator of partnering agreements between business and government with a track record of success in California. He has managed the partnering process for scores of large-scale partnering agreements. He has facilitated and negotiated environmental and land use projects among members of congress, federal departments and bureaus, senior officials in the California governor’s U.S. office and departments and senior-level business and industry leaders. As a facilitator of partnering agreements, he has orchestrated positive outcomes on a voluntary basis in California and the rest of the U.S. with stakeholders. In recognition of his expertise in this area, he has served on blue ribbon panels. For example, he was appointed by the Governor of California to the Sierra Summit Task Force. The Task Force’s mission was to open a dialogue between senior government officials and business and industry leaders in order to achieve a healthy, sustainable environment in Sierra Nevada while also supporting the goals of the participating representatives of the recreational, timber, and mining industries, as well as water purveyors and manufacturing. In all these activities, he has produced positive outcomes in a negotiating context.

Mr. Burke has extensive experience supervising legal projects. He was appointed by the Secretary of Interior as a Regional Solicitor for the Pacific Southwest Region where he coordinated and oversaw the legal activities of the Department of Interior for California, Nevada, Arizona, Hawaii and the Trust Territories. Mr. Burke has drafted legislation adopted by Congress providing positive outcomes for stakeholders in the environment. He was a litigator who negotiated effective resolutions for conflicts on behalf of the Department of the Interior for fifteen years. In this capacity, he has appeared in court and negotiated small disputes to those involving hundreds of millions of dollars affecting major segments of natural resources in the Pacific Northwest and California. Mr. Burke is also a former naval officer who was decorated for his service in Vietnam.

Affliliations
Member of the State of California and District of Columbia Bars
Member of the U.S. Supreme Court Bar
Member of the Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit and the District of Columbia Bars
Education
1973    J.D., George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
1966    A.B., Princeton University, Princeton, N.J.