John L. Burris

Oakland

John L. Burris is a nationally prominent civil rights attorney with a 40-year career specializing in police misconduct cases and reform efforts in the areas of deadly force, canine use, police treatment of the mentally impaired and other socially volatile policies.

After years of operating as the Law Offices of John L. Burris, in 2021, he transitioned to the Burris Nisenbaum Curry & Lacy firm title.

His most recent win came in July when he negotiated a $3.25 million settlement for family members of Justin Perkins, a mentally ill man who died in 2018 after being placed in a chokehold by Anaheim police. Perkins et al. v. City of Anaheim et al., 8:18-cv-00315 (C.D. Cal., filed Feb. 16, 2019).

“A theme of my efforts is that police cannot create a confrontation, then shoot or beat their way out of it and claim self-defense,” Burris said.

“The work goes on,” he added, noting his long emphasis on guiding young lawyers. “This is a major portion of what I do. You know, Pamela Price started with me,” he said, naming the current Alameda County district attorney. “I am creating footprints for future lawyers because this is a relay race I’m running. I expect them all to be in full stride when I step away. I offer training, direction and insight.”

Burris was raised in Vallejo and worked in Chicago after law school. There, he was appointed to a city commission looking into police misconduct issues, conducting victim interviews that he said opened his eyes. “It lit a fire in me. I came back to Oakland in 1979, set on my course.”

Along the way, he encountered mentors such as Willie Mae Whiting, a pioneer Black woman prosecutor and judge in Illinois; Clinton W. White, a California appellate justice who inspired many African Americans to seek law careers; civil rights activist and law professor Henry Ramsey Jr.; and Judge Thelton E. Henderson.

“Willie Brown has been like a guardian angel for me throughout my career,” Burris said. “And Johnnie Cochran encouraged me to leave criminal defense work and start doing police litigation. He was a close friend.”

In June 2022, Burris persuaded a federal jury to award $21 million to the family of a 16-year-old girl killed by police gunfire as she rode in a vehicle driven by a man they were trying to arrest. Mondragon v. City of Fremont et al., 5:18-cv-01605 (N.D. Cal., filed March 14, 2018).

“I made sure the jurors saw that the police had the opportunity to arrest him without shooting into a moving car,” Burris said.

—John Roemer