Michael Burke
Michael Burke was born in June of 1953 in Los Angeles, California. He was the youngest of the children in an Irish-Catholic family. His father, a lawyer and accountant who specialized in tax and probate law, was raised in Clinton, Iowa, while his mother was raised in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
When Michael Burke was 3 years old, his family moved to San Diego, where he was raised. He attended UC San Diego for his Freshman and Sophomore years of College, and transferred to UC Santa Cruz, where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology. He received his law degree at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, and was “sworn in” to the California Bar in December of 1981.
He set up his office in downtown San Diego and joined the El Centro CJA panel in March of 1982. He served on the material witness panel from 1984-1986. He served on the CJA active defense panel in San Diego from 1986 to 1988. He continued to serve on the CJA active defense panel from 1992 to November of last year. He did not apply to remain on the CJA Panel due to the pandemic.
Michael Burke got married to Edith del Rosario Padilla-Velazquez, an accountant from Mexicali, B.C. in December of 1996. They have a son, Brendan Burke, who turned 18 in December. Brendan has autism and attends a private school which specializes in bringing out the extraordinary talents of “special needs” children like Brendan. Michael, Edith and Brendan Burke live happily together in Mission Hills.
Michael Burke participated in an intense acting workshop for around three years in the late 1980's which met twice a week, and required three practice sessions between workshops. In each class he performed one scripted scene and one improvisational scene. When Michael was in trial, he practiced his closing arguments before the acting workshop, about the size of a jury, and got feedback. He noticed an unmistakable correlation between acting and trial work. In his first three trials in federal court, where the conviction rate is 95%, he got one hung jury, one conviction, and one acquittal. The workshop emphasized that to be persuasive, one must truly believe everything he is saying to the jury. He continued with acting by participating in plays presented by the San Diego Irish Players. Years later, he attended “regionals” presented by Gerry Spence, and felt very privileged to meet Gerry Spence and hear him speak. He had observed the incredible results his students were achieving in trial, including winning seemingly impossible cases. Michael found that his acting background, even though it had been quite a while since he had acted, made it much easier to apply the Spence method.
Almost 10 years ago, in January of 2010, Michael Burke was about to get in his car to meet another panel attorney for breakfast before going to the office. Since a Palm Tree had fallen on his car, Michael Burke asked his friend to pick him up. When his friend arrived, Michael asked him to go back to the disabled car, so as to retrieve a computer and some legal materials. Just as Michael placed those materials in the back of his friend’s SUV, a palm tree, which was next to the palm tree which fell on the car, fell on Mike’s legs, breaking the pelvis, both femurs, and the fibula and tibia bones. In addition, the artery below the right knee was ruptured, and the outstanding team of doctors at the UCSD Hospital ER could not stop the bleeding. His wife Edith was told that the chance of living through the night was 50-50. We later learned from other medical experts that the odds were closer to 90% against survival. Michael Burke pulled through, however, after spending more than a year in hospitals and skilled nursing facilities. Due primarily to extensive nerve damage in both legs, he is unable to walk, and requires a wheelchair for mobility. In 2011, Michael Burke returned to his federal court panel work, where he continued to represent indigent clients facing federal charges until the pandemic. Michael Burke has been recognized by Super-Lawyer as a “top rated criminal defense attorney.”