The 2016 Best Lawyers "Lawyer of the Year" (Phoenix) in Labor and Employment Litigation, Burr Shields is an employment attorney, mediator and arbitrator. Burr represents employers and employees in a wide range of issues, including litigation. He also mediates and arbitrates employment-related disputes.Burr’s approach to practicing law (see "Scope of Legal Practice") and to mediating employment disputes is greatly influenced by his self-assessment, “I love people, and I despise inefficiency.”PEER RECOGNITION. Burr has been practicing employment law in Arizona since 1987. He has earned Martindale-Hubbell’s AV-Preeminent rating, is a Super Lawyers selectee, and has been listed by The Best Lawyers in America® since 2009. In 2016, Best Lawyers named him “Lawyer of the Year” (Phoenix) for Labor and Employment Litigation. Burr has also been rated by Chambers and Partners since 2015.MEDIATION OF EMPLOYMENT DISPUTES. As an employment mediator trained at the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at the Pepperdine School of Law and an American Arbitration Association panelist, Burr brings strong subject matter expertise to every employment dispute in which he is engaged.For almost 30 years, Burr has represented employers and employees, both as an advisor and as a litigator. This breadth of experience enables him to understand and analyze the plight of both sides in an employment dispute. It also enables him to be more objective in evaluating the parties’ positions.ARBITRATION OF EMPLOYMENT DISPUTES. Burr has arbitrated employment-related disputes for over a decade and became an American Arbitration Association (AAA) panel member in 2020.