Events and Activities

Patrick A. Burns, Esq. '68

Patrick A. Burns is senior executive vice president and general counsel of Mutual of America Life Insurance Company, a $13 billion company that underwrites pension plans for small- to medium-sized employers, primarily nonprofits. He joined the company as general counsel in 1986 and focuses on corporate, pension, securities and employment law. Since 1998, he has also served on the board of directors.

He was previously associate general counsel in New York Life Insurance Company’s Office of the General Counsel, where his legal career began in 1971 after graduating from law school. There he focused on litigation, insurance, pension and employment law.

He has served as the chairman of the Legislative Committee of the Life Insurance Council of New York and as chairman of the Committee on Financial Regulatory Policy of the American Council of Life Insurers in Washington, DC. He is a member of the Legal Board of Trustees of the American Irish Legal Research and Education Foundation and served as a member of the Legal Board of Trustees of Iona College from 1995 through 2000. Recently, Pat was informed, as was his brother, Ed, that they both were named to the Irish Voice Newspaper/Irish America Magazine’s soon to be published inaugural “Legal 100,” their listing of the leading Irish American lawyers in the United States.

Pat was raised in the Bronx and is a proud graduate of St. Helena Grammar School, All Hallows High School, Iona College and the Fordham School of Law. He is also a graduate of Columbia University’s Executive Management Program. He has been married to Jane (a graduate of MAAC rival, Niagara University) for 34 years. They live in Bronxville, New York, but also spend time in Vermont.

In addition to supporting various initiatives at Iona College, Pat and Jane support a number of other educational and charitable organizations and causes.