The Hon. Larry Alan Burns (Ret.) served as a judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of California. Burns was nominated to the bench by former President George W. Bush on May 1, 2003, and confirmed by the United States Senate on September 24, 2003. He assumed senior status on January 22, 2021, and retired on May 1, 2024.
Prior to his appointment, Burns was a magistrate on the United States District Court for the Southern District of California, a position to which he was named in 1997. Over the course of his judicial career, Burns sat by designation with the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. He also sat on assignment in Idaho, Guam, and the Southern District of New York.
He has presided over a number of high-profile cases, including the sentencing of a former member of the United States House of Representatives for accepting bribes from military contractors. He also sentenced the head of the notorious Arrellano-Felix drug cartel, and he presided over the case of Jared Lee Loughner, who was accused of killing six individuals and injuring twelve others, including the former United States Representative Gabrielle Giffords, at a political rally in Tucson, Arizona.
Burns received a B.A. from Point Loma Nazarene University in 1976. He went on to earn a J.D. from the University of San Diego School of Law in 1979.
After graduating from law school, Burns became a deputy district attorney with the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office. He served in that capacity until 1985, at which time he became an assistant United States attorney with the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California.
His memberships have included the American College of Trial Lawyers and the American Board of Trial Advocates.
He was named Judge of the Year by the San Diego Consumer Trial Lawyers (2003).
Born in Pasadena, California, Burns is the son of a police officer with the Pasadena Police Department. He was raised in the Church of the Nazarene. Burns and his wife, Kristi, have two children.
