Burns, who received his undergraduate degree from the University of California at Los Angeles and his law degree from Fordham Law School, has been practicing law since 1967.

 

Burns, Kennedy, Schilling and Shea is also active in pro bono work for non-profits including the Children's Radio Foundation in South Africa and Free Play Radio, which helps educate children through radio communication, and Burns himself has been involved in the Public Interest Practice of the American Bar Association, which encourages pro bono legal services, and has served as chairman of the Young Lawyers Committee.

 

Irish on both his mother and his father's side, Burns is married to Carole Burns and they have two children, Erin and Edmund Jr.