A terrific seminar

If you’re an appellate lawyer or a general litigator who sometimes handles appeals, then you should consider attending the DRI Appellate Advocacy Seminar, to be held in Orlando, Florida on February 28–29, 2008. I have been fortunate enough to attend every DRI Appellate Advocacy Seminar ever held, from the first one in 1999 in Washington, D.C. through last year’s in Phoenix, Arizona. The DRI seminars are, in my opinion, the best of their kind in the nation. The upcoming program includes the following presentations:

• An assessment of the Roberts Court by Supreme Court practitioner Patricia Ann Millett and law professor David Stras.
• A panel discussion giving the “view from the other side of the bench” by appellate judges Theodore McKee (3d Cir.), Diane Sykes (7th Cir.), and Chief Justice Jean Hoefer Toal (S.C. Supreme Court).
• “The Beautiful Brief — Persuasion Through Appearance,” by Prof. Ruth Anne Robbins, author of Painting with Print.
• A panel discussion by three in-house lawyers — Ann Marie Hanrahan of 3M, James E. Kling of Cooper Tire & Rubber Co., and Teresa Wynn Roseboroug of MetLife — about the contributions their appellate lawyers to give to the trial team.
• “Judicial Use of Legal Reasoning — Theory Versus Practice,” by Prof. Emily L. Sherwin.
• “The Impact of the Internet in Briefs and Judicial Opinions,” by Prof. Coleen M. Barger, hostess of Barger on Legal Writing.
• “How to Bring a Cold Paper Record to Life,” by Dahlia Lithwick, giving a journalist’s perspective on how to convert a box of paper into a compelling story.
• “The Unwritten Rules of Appellate Advocacy,” by seasoned appellate lawyer Luther Munford.
• A presentation on arbitration appeals by Aaron S. Bayer.
• For ethics credit, a presentation on ethical issues in appellate advocacy by Douglas R. Richmond of Aon Corp.

The seminar will be held at the J. W. Marriott Orlando, Grande Lakes. For more information, visit DRI’s web site or click here to download the brochure.