Publication: The Daily News

Editor's Note: This Law Talk is the second in a series of interviews with new shareholders in the Memphis office of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz PC.

John B. Burns is one of five attorneys who earlier this year were named shareholders in the Memphis office of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz PC. He joined Mark A.B. Carlson, Leigh M. Chiles, Angie C. Davis and Clinton J. Simpson in the distinction.

In 2000, when he was 35 years old, Burns quit his job as a staff attorney to the Tennessee Court of Appeals in Jackson to go to tax school at the University of Florida, where he graduated in 2001 with a master of laws degree in tax law. He said it was one of the scariest things he has ever done, but it didn't stop him from following through with the decision, as Burns now focuses his practice in the area of tax law.

He graduated cum laude from the University of Mississippi in 1986 with a bachelor of arts degree in classics and from its law school in 1990.

Before joining Baker Donelson in 2001, Burns served the Tennessee Court of Appeals in Jackson from 1993 to 2000, where he managed all appeals to the court. In addition to his tax law experience, Burns also served on the Florida Tax Review.