Erica Burns Made Partner, Then Held the Door Open for Florida's Next Professionals
Shaped by her years in South Florida, Erica Burns is a partner at Purely Legal and co-founder of a nonprofit that brings inner-city youth into professional rooms
Grand Island, New York, is a small suburb outside Buffalo, a long way from a Florida courtroom. Erica G. Burns made the trip in 2004, when her family moved to Florida, and the state has been home ever since. Most of those years were spent in South Florida, where she earned her bachelor's degree at Florida International University in Miami before heading to law school in Tallahassee.
Today she is a partner at Purely Legal, where her practice centers on divorce, child support, parental responsibility and timesharing, with homeowners' property insurance claims alongside. The firm also takes personal injury cases in Florida, Maryland and Washington, DC. Best Lawyers has named her to its Ones to Watch list since 2026 for family law and plaintiffs' personal injury litigation in Orlando.
A training in very different rooms
Her early years in the law ranged widely. During law school she interned at Park & Crump, the firm of civil rights attorney Ben Crump, whose work for the families of Trayvon Martin, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor has drawn national attention. She was there while the firm represented Trayvon Martin's family and estate. She also interned at a state agency, at a family law practice and at GrayRobinson, a large corporate firm, where the internship turned into her first job out of law school and her first years of litigation.
She is a member of the Paul C. Perkins Bar Association and the National Bar Association, and her writing has reached past the courtroom: she co-wrote "Telemedicine: A Cure for Underserved Female Patients?" for Law360 in February 2016, and "Telemedicine, Women, and the Law" for Florida MD in December 2015.
Life Beyond Adversity
In 2016 Burns co-founded Life Beyond Adversity, a nonprofit she serves as vice president, created to change the trajectory of inner-city youth by bringing them into professional environments. The idea is exposure: a first look inside the kind of office where a career can start.
Her days now run between two kinds of work, the families whose lives are changing and the young people the nonprofit brings through the door. Followers can keep up with her on Instagram.
Highlights
Who is Erica Burns?
Erica G. Burns is an attorney and partner at Purely Legal, practicing mainly family law, and recognized in Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch since 2026.
What is Life Beyond Adversity?
A nonprofit Erica Burns co-founded in 2016 that gives inner-city youth exposure to professional environments.
Where did Erica Burns study?
She earned her bachelor's degree at Florida International University in Miami and went to law school in Tallahassee.
