If so, take a look at this bit of wisdom shared by Mark Herrmann.
As for me: I like where I am. I didn’t get here with circuit court or Supreme Court credentials (I don’t have any); just an aptitude for the work coupled with years of experience. My only advice is not to let your earliest years out of law school define your entire career. It took me 10 years to figure out that appellate practice best suited me.
Our friends at Texas Appellate Watch report on proposed amendments to Fed. R. App. P. 32, lowering the word limit for principal briefs from 14,000 to 12,500, and for reply briefs from 7,000 to 6,250. The deadline for comments is February 17, 2015. If you want to comment, click here for instructions.
Would you like to know the writ-grant rates in the Louisiana Supreme Court and the five Louisiana courts of appeal? The numbers are published in the Louisiana Supreme Court’s Annual Report for 2013. The report is a treasure chest of information about the operation of Louisiana’s courts. But for appellate practitioners, the most useful information is found on pages 22 through 29, where you’ll find the statistics, including total writ applications filed, total granted, and total denied for each court. For the Supreme Court, you can also see the numbers for rehearing applications. (Hint: not good for the applicant—zero rehearings granted in 2013).