Our Story
Watson Burns, PLLC emerged from the collaboration of Frank L. Watson, III and William F. Burns, who crossed paths in 1996 as trial attorneys at one of Tennessee’s oldest and most respected defense firms. In 2005, they united with a shared goal: to establish a boutique trial firm dedicated to efficiently handling high-stakes civil litigation. To realize this vision, they implemented a rigorous policy of accepting only a select number of cases at a time, ensuring that both partners personally evaluate and approve each new case. This selective approach allows the firm and its staff to concentrate fully on the critical issues our clients face. This strategy has proven highly successful, leading us to prevail in the majority of our clients’ cases, often against some of the most formidable law firms in the nation, including Williams & Connolly, McDermott Will & Emery, Greenberg Traurig, Debevoise & Plimpton, Bass Berry & Sims, and Baker Donelson, among others. Today we have offices in various cities and have a large support staff of lawyers, paralegals and investigators that help us obtain justice and compensation for our clients.
Our Philosophy
At Watson Burns, PLLC, we believe that trial lawyers should share in the litigation risks faced by their clients. Other large national plaintiff firms, frequently engage in extensive advertising campaigns to attract clients, aiming for quick, inexpensive settlements that may not serve their clients’ best interests. At Watson Burns, we take a different approach. We thoroughly investigate claims and share in our clients’ risks. Other than maintaining a website, we do not advertise at all. The majority of our cases get referred to us from other lawyers, past and present clients. This method has enabled us to not be have the financial stress that forces many lawyers to pressure their clients to settle a case for less than full value. This has allowed us to recover over $500 million for our clients in cases involving significant personal injury and wrongful death, consumer and RICO class actions, legal malpractice, and investment fraud. In the last several years, William F. Burns has shifted the focus of his personal practice to almost exclusively handling legal malpractice claims on behalf of individuals and companies harmed by the negligence of their attorneys. He and the firm handle these malpractice matters all over the county and, to date, has handled legal malpractice cases in more than 18 states. For more details on our past successes, please visit the Notable Cases section of our website.