The Journal of Appellate Practice & Process is looking for one or two more articles or essays for our Summer 2024 issue. In particular, we are looking for articles that focus on either the work of state appellate courts or…
Continue Reading Journal of Appellate Practice & Process Looking for State-focused Articles

In Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, the United States Supreme Court ended affirmative action in college admissions.[1] Specifically, the Court held that race-based considerations in the admissions process violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.[2] Writing for the majority,…
Continue Reading The Optics of Ending Affirmative Action

The old adage “better late than never” certainly applies to the latest issue of the Journal of Appellate Practice and Process. Here is a press release from NITA, our editing partner, announcing its release: Journal of Appellate Practice and Process…
Continue Reading The newest issue of the Journal of Appellate Practice and Process

Watching the past week’s Republican presidential candidate debate and its subsequent press coverage caused me to reflect on the differences between that type of political debate and appellate oral argument. Some of the differences are obvious. In political debate, candidates…
Continue Reading Political Debates and Oral Advocacy: Differences and Similarities

Earlier this year I blogged about a rules change petition pending before the Arizona Supreme Court to do away with the Table of Authorities. As I explain in the post, the attorneys petitioning the Court for the change argue that,…
Continue Reading Dear Arizona Supreme Court–Please Keep the Table of Authorities.

The best attorneys often, but not always, share common characteristics. They are incredibly intelligent. They often graduated from top law schools and were ranked at the top of their law school classes. They were on law review. They obtained federal…
Continue Reading What Makes a Great Attorney – The Intangibles

Last post, I shared part of a great list of ten brief-writing tips from the Hon. Terrence L. Michael, Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma and a member of the Bankruptcy…
Continue Reading Judge Michael’s Brief-Writing Tips, Part 2

It seems like everywhere I look I am hearing something about generative AI. Lawyers are freaking out that we will be replaced, judges are freaking out that attorneys are over relying on it, and academics are freaking out about how…
Continue Reading Can AI prepare me for a clerkship interview?

I am a huge fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and one of my favorite lines comes from Thor in Avengers: Infinity War. Thor and the Guardians of the Galaxy are trying to stop the mad Titan Thanos from destroying…
Continue Reading All Words are Made Up: Thoughts on Using Dictionaries for Statutory Interpretation

Each week, the Appellate Advocacy Blog Weekly Roundup presents a few tidbits of news and Twitter posts from the past week concerning appellate advocacy. As always, if you see something during the week that you think we should be sure…
Continue Reading Appellate Advocacy Blog Weekly Roundup Friday, August 4, 2023

I clerked for three years before entering private practice. It was easy to be a sponge and soak up the good tactics of the attorneys I observed, the procedures of the courts where I worked, and familiarity with new areas…
Continue Reading "You Write Like a Law Clerk." Ouch.

Because my teaching typically focuses on appellate advocacy, I rarely teach 1Ls. In fact, I have NEVER taught a first year legal writing class–that is until this year. Yes, this year I will be teaching a fall section of first…
Continue Reading Advice to 1Ls

Several times over the past couple of years, I agreed to join an appellate team in a case to help finish the reply brief and make the argument. Its not the optimal way to take on an appeal. Limited time,…
Continue Reading Sometimes a Reply Brief Should Explore a New Path