Scott J. Burke

Scott Burke is a partner in Cetrulo LLP’s Boston office. Scott focuses his practice on construction, employment, personal injury, and commercial litigation for both individuals and businesses. Scott spends a significant portion of his practice counseling employers and individuals on wage and hour laws, restrictive covenants, employee training and hiring practices, employment offers and terminations.

Scott has successfully prosecuted high-stakes personal injury matters, including recovering in excess of seven figures in a highly charged matter against a national retailer. He also regularly defends corporations and insurers in catastrophic injury cases and wrongful death matters.

Scott represents owners, contractors, and design professionals in construction litigation, negotiations, and dispute resolution, while working closely with the Cetrulo transactional team to address labor and employment issues, commercial litigation matters, risk management, and strategic negotiations.

Scott is first and foremost a litigator, which informs his practice and provides him with the experience and perspective necessary to effectively advise individuals and businesses on risk management, risk transfer, litigation strategy, trial preparation, and dispute resolution.

Scott serves as a mediator in personal injury, construction, commercial, and employment matters, drawing on his extensive trial experience to facilitate resolution of complex and often high-conflict disputes. Scott has participated in hundreds of mediations throughout his career and received specialized training by completing a 30-hour interactive mediation program conducted by MetroWest Mediation Services.

He regularly appears in Massachusetts state and federal courts and has been admitted pro hac vice in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Scott has successfully tried more than thirty jury trials to verdict. In addition, he has conducted numerous bench trials, arbitrations, expert depositions, mediations, and dispositive hearings, as well as administrative hearings. Scott has garnered notable jury verdicts in personal injury matters. By way of example, he obtained a defense verdict following a three-week trial in Middlesex Superior Court involving negligent security claims brought by several injured patrons alleging permanent brain injuries and other serious harm. He also obtained a defense verdict in Suffolk Superior Court where the plaintiff’s medical expert opined that the plaintiff sustained a permanent back injury. Additionally, Scott achieved a defense verdict in another Suffolk Superior Court matter in which the plaintiff claimed a permanent brain injury and had declined an offer of the defendant’s general liability policy limits. Scott has also secured favorable outcomes for clients in multiple construction litigation and employment matters, as well as defense verdicts in numerous general liability cases.

Prior to joining Cetrulo, Scott served as a Supervising Attorney for a multinational insurer’s staff counsel office, where he was a member of the management team responsible for launching the office and expanding its operations to encompass three states and more than eighteen attorneys. Scott also spent twelve years representing individuals and businesses in general liability, construction and employment litigation matters.

Scott completed the Harvard Business School Management Essentials Program, which is designed to enhance leadership skills and address complex business challenges.

 

Presentations, Classes & Seminars Taught

• “Snow and Ice Law in Massachusetts and Investigative Techniques”
• “Litigation Training for Claims Professionals: Complaint to Trial”
• “What is Risk Transfer?”
• “Golchin v. Liberty: Chapter 93A and the Coordination of Med Pay Benefits”
•  Two mock trials focusing on social host liability

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• Massachusetts Super Lawyers, Rising Star, 2007-08 and 2011