Martin Parks Burks (January 23, 1851 – April 30, 1928) (some sources give the date of his birth as 1850) was born in Bedford County, Virginia.
In 1872, he was admitted to the bar and began practicing law in Bedford County in partnership with his father.
The younger Burks remained in practice at Bedford until he returned to Washington and Lee in 1900 as a professor of law.
Three years later he was made dean of the law department where he stayed until he was elected to the Supreme Court of Appeals in 1917.
It immediately became the authority to lawyers and jurists on the subjects it included, and it was also adopted as a textbook by the law schools in Virginia.