She represented former detainees of Abu Ghraib prison in a suit against interrogators and translators from CACI and Titan Corp.[2][3] who were tasked with obtaining military intelligence from them during their detention.
[16][17] In 2011, Burke brought suit on behalf of 17 active-duty service members and veterans who said they were assaulted while in the military and that the Defense Department’s handling of their claims failed to bring the perpetrators to justice.
[18] Burke filed suit against former Secretaries of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates on the grounds that they were partially responsible for creating a military environment that made such assaults possible.
And most of those weren’t even being convicted.” Burke brought a series of class-action lawsuits against KBR and Halliburton on behalf of service members who said exposure to the companies’ open-air “burn pits” in Iraq and Afghanistan made them ill.[22][23][24] She was appointed Lead MLD Counsel in the multi-district litigation.
[25] Burke represented detainees held at the Abu Ghraib prison -- the scandal of the U.S. government-run torture site was significant in turning public opinion against the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
[29] Burke filed a series of suits against government contractor Blackwater Worldwide for their role in an October 2007 shooting in Baghdad that left 17 Iraqis dead.
Burke has brought cases against health care providers for alleged Medicare and Medicaid fraud and worked on campaign finance issues on behalf of former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter.
[39] Burke represented plaintiffs Talib Mutlaq Deewan and the estates of Himoud Saed Abtan, Usama Fadil Abbass and Oday Ismail Ibraheem in a lawsuit against Blackwater (now Academi).
The lawsuit, which stemmed from the firefight in Nisoor Square in Baghdad, alleged Blackwater had violated the federal Alien Tort Statute by committing extrajudicial killing and war crimes, and that the company was liable for assault and battery, wrongful death, intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, and negligent hiring, training and supervision.
[32] In 2008, a federal judge in Virginia allowed former detainees to sue CACI International Inc. and Titan Corp.[failed verification] for mistreatment while being held in Abu Ghraib.
[4] The case was dismissed on September 11, 2009, by a panel of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, on the grounds that the charges could not be brought against the contractors under the Alien Tort Statute.
The plaintiffs, Melan and Brad Davis, alleged that their former employer, U.S. Training Center, had overbilled and defrauded the U.S. government while providing security services in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, as well as in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The complaint was dismissed[50] when the court agreed with the government’s argument that service members could not sue the military for injuries that are “incident to plaintiffs’ military service.”[51] Reports published in The New York Times and for CBS News were critical of Burke's defense of Abu Ghraib detainees, citing Pentagon reports stating that 14-20% of individuals who have been released from such facilities because they have been deemed not to pose a serious threat allegedly resume terrorist activities.
[54][55] One such former detainee, Ibrahim Shafir Sen, who was released from Guantanamo and, with Burke as his attorney, filed a suit against Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld,[56] was later re-arrested in Turkey and charged with being a leader of an al-Qaida terrorist cell.
[57] During a hearing on the civil immunity of government contractors working at Abu Ghraib, Burke asserted that enemy combatants should have the right to sue U.S. soldiers if the U.S. attorney general "fails to intervene."