Michael Burg J.D. is one of America’s leading trial lawyers, a best-selling author, legal expert and founding shareholder of Burg Simpson Eldredge Hersh & Jardine. A legal champion for victims of corporate and individual malfeasance, negligence, overreach and abuse, Burg began his career fighting for the underdog and has gone on to successfully litigate some of the country’s most high-profile cases of the past four decades. Under Burg’s leadership, Burg Simpson Eldredge Hersh & Jardine has expanded to more than 60 attorneys across seven cities. A national leader in mass tort and class action litigation, the firm has won more than $1 billion in verdicts, judgments, and settlements on behalf of its clients.

During his 43-year career, Burg has been a vigilant consumer watchdog, representing thousands of individuals and helping their families overcome catastrophic injuries and immense hardship. He has taken on big pharma in multiple, dangerous drug mass tort cases including Fen-Phen, Yaz/Yasmin, Ortho Evra, and Pradaxa. Burg stood up to corporate greed fighting against UBS for knowingly selling risky mortgages to investors, creating the blueprint for many similar actions by states, municipalities, government regulators and other aggrieved investors. More recently, Burg filed a sweeping action against 28 California wineries to stop them from selling toxic wine contaminated with arsenic. In 2019, Michael Burg secured a $58.5 million dollar verdict in compensatory and punitive damage for families who had donated bodies of their deceased loved ones to the Biological Resource Center. He represented the victims of a fraudulent scheme to illegally sell human body parts of their loved one’s bodies that were supposed to be donated for scientific and medical education and research. The verdict is one of the largest civil case results in Arizona history.

Burg is a member of the Arizona, Colorado and Nebraska bars and is an inductee into the Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame, an honor that recognizes his lifelong dedication to representing clients at the highest level. Michael Burg is a recipient of the Clarence Darrow Award, and was inducted into the 2019 US Legal 500 Hall of Fame for Product Liability, Mass Tort and Class Action: Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices-Plaintiff. He was also recognized by Best Lawyers® “Lawyer of the Year” in 2018,” for Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions – Plaintiffs, Denver. In 2018, Law Week Colorado named Michael Burg “Barrister’s Best – People’s Choice, Best Class Action/Mass Tort Lawyer, Plaintiffs. Mike Burg has been consistently recognized by Colorado Super Lawyers every year since 2006

Burg is the author of the best-selling book, Trial by Fire: One Man’s Battle to End Corporate Greed and Save Lives, (BenBella Books 2016), a harrowing and moving account of his lifelong battle against corporate greed and corruption played out in a high-stakes courtroom drama.

Burg was admitted to the practice of law in 1976 after receiving a J.D. from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law and a B.A. from the University of Denver. He’s an Advocate and Life Fellow of the American Board of Trial Advocates, a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America, a Sustaining Fellow of the Roscoe Pound Institute and serves on the board of Denver’s Mizel Museum.

An active and committed member of his community, Burg is a noted supporter of Toys for Tots, Make A Wish Colorado, Colorado Symphony Orchestra, and the Denver Bar Association Community Action Network.

PRACTICE AREAS

Personal Injury

Catastrophic Injuries

Dangerous Drugs, Medical Devices, Defective Products and Diseases

Natural Gas Explosions

Commercial Litigation

Professional Malpractice

Legal Malpractice

Securities

BAR ADMISSIONS

Colorado, 1976

Arizona, 2014

Nebraska, 1996

U.S. District Court, District of Colorado, 1976

U.S. District Court, District of Arizona, 2015

U.S. Court of Appeals, 10th Circuit, 1979

U.S. Supreme Court, 1990

EDUCATION

J.D., 1975, The University of Denver Sturm College of Law

B.A., 1972, The University of Denver