Christopher Burke

Judge Christopher J. Burke has served as a United States Magistrate Judge on the United States District Court for the District of Delaware since August 4, 2011. Judge Burke’s civil caseload consists of various types of litigation matters, including a significant number of patent cases. He often oversees such cases from their initial stages up through and including expert discovery, summary judgement and/or trial.

Prior to joining the bench, from 2005 to 2011, Judge Burke was an Assistant United States Attorney at the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware. From 2001 to 2005, he was an associate at the Washington, D.C. office of the law firm of Covington & Burling LLP. Prior to that, he served as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Kenneth F. Ripple of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

Judge Burke is a 2000 graduate of the University of Michigan Law School. He received his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University in 1997.

Judge Burke currently serves as the Chairman of the Federal Trial Practice Seminar, a trial skills development program jointly sponsored by the United States District Court for the District of Delaware and the Federal Bar Association’s Delaware Chapter. He also presides over the District Court’s criminal Re-entry Court, which focuses on providing oversight, support and assistance to individuals serving terms of federal supervised release. He assists in overseeing the administration of the District Court’s Federal Civil Panel, which provides representation to indigent parties with civil cases pending before the Court. And he created and oversees the District Court’s High School Summer Fellowship Program, which provides mentoring to high school-aged youth in New Castle County and exposes those students to the work of the federal court system.