Appellate Litigation Clinic Director
t burch pic
Fax
(706) 542-5556

University of Georgia
School of Law
313A Dean Rusk Hall
Athens, GA 30602
United States

Administrative Support

B.A., B.B.A., Mississippi State University
J.D., Florida State University

Courses

Appellate Litigation Clinic
Appellate Advocacy
Alternative Dispute Resolution Seminar
Persuading the Judge and Jury

Biographical Information

Thomas V. Burch joined the University of Georgia School of Law faculty in 2011 after starting his academic career as an assistant visiting professor at the Florida State University College of Law in 2009. He supervises the law school's Appellate Litigation Clinic, which has represented clients before the Georgia Supreme Court; the Second, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, Eleventh and D.C. Circuits; the Board of Immigration Appeals; the U.S. Office of the Pardon Attorney and the U.S. Supreme Court. With Burch's assistance, students communicate with clients, decide case strategy, write briefs and present oral argument. Their work has resulted in significant victories for their clients, including a rare clemency grant for a client who was serving a life sentence for a non-violent drug offense.

Burch also teaches Appellate Advocacy, and he co-teaches a mini-course called Persuading the Judge and Jury that is part of the law school's Edenfield Jurist in Residence program. So far, he has co-taught the mini-course with Judge David B. Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Judge Bernice B. Donald of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, Judge Adalberto Jordan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, Judge Stephanie D. Thacker of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and Justice Sarah Warren of the Supreme Court of Georgia. 

Burch has also published articles on various topics in the Utah Law Review, the Kansas Law Review, the Florida State University Law Review, the California Law Review Online, the American Arbitration Association Handbook on Dispute Resolution and the American Arbitration Association Dispute Resolution Journal, among others.

Burch earned bachelor's degrees in Spanish and finance, both from Mississippi State University. He earned his law degree from Florida State University, where he served as legislative editor of the Florida State University Law Review. He started his career as a litigation associate at King & Spalding in Atlanta.

Bar Memberships:
Georgia Bar (active)
Alabama Bar (active)
Florida Bar (inactive)
U.S. Supreme Court
Georgia Supreme Court
U.S Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
U.S Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
U.S Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia
U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia

Publications & Activities

ARTICLES

''New Judgment" and the Federal Habeas Statutes, 8 Calif. L. Rev. Online 88 (2017).

What Do Appellate Clinics Do?, 35 App. Prac. (2016).

Regulating Mandatory Arbitration, 2011 Utah L. Rev 1309 (2011).

Manifest Disregard and the Imperfect Procedural Justice of Arbitration, 59 Kan. L. Rev. 47 (2010).

The Effect of Forum Selection Clauses on District Courts' Authority to Compel Arbitration, AAA Dispute Res. J. (Nov.-Jan. ed. 2006) (with John Hinchey).

An Arbitrator's Authority to Award Bad Faith Attorney Fees, AAA Dispute Res. J. (May-July ed. 2005) (with John Hinchey) (Reprinted in AMERICAN ARBITRATION ASSOCIATION HANDBOOK ON ARBITRATION PRACTICE (Carbonneau and Jaeggi, eds., 2010)).

Necessity Never Made a Good Bargain: When Consumer Arbitration Agreements Prohibit Class Relief, 31 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 1005 (2004).

Georgia General Assembly Adopts "Manifest Disregard" as a Ground for Vacating Arbitration Awards: How Will Georgia Courts Treat the New Standard?, Ga. Bar J. 10 (Feb. 2004) (with John Hinchey).

"Doublethink"ing Privacy under the Multi-State Antiterrorism Information Exchange, 29 Seton Hall Legis. J. 147 (2004).

Non-State Actors in the Nuclear Black Market: Proposing an International Legal Framework for Preventing Nuclear Expertise Proliferation & Nuclear Smuggling by Non-State Actors, 2 Santa Clara J. Int'l L. 84 (2004).