Louisiana Civil Appeals

For “Bridging the Gap” participants

This morning, I gave my semi-annual presentation on appellate practice for the Louisiana State Bar Association’s Bridging the Gap seminar for new lawyers. For them and anyone else who may be interested, here are the bonus materials that I promised:

• A PDF copy of my slide presentation
• U.S. 7th Circuit’s Requirements and Suggestions for Typography in Briefs and Other Papers 
• Ruth Anne Robbins, Painting With Print 

Below are links to downloadable PDFs of sample appellate briefs and pleadings. For reasons stated during the seminar, please do not follow these slavishly; the rules may have changed since these were written.

• Sample notice of intent to seek supervisory writ
• Sample application for supervisory writ
• Sample appeal brief
• Sample La. Supreme Court writ application

Free CLE stuff for “Bridging the Gap” participants

This morning, I gave my semi-annual presentation on appellate practice for the Louisiana State Bar Association’s Bridging the Gap seminar for new lawyers. For them and anyone else who may be interested, here are the bonus materials that I promised:

• A PDF cop of my slide presentation
• U.S. 7th Circuit’s Requirements and Suggestions for Typography in Briefs and Other Papers 
• Ruth Anne Robbins, Painting With Print 

Below are links to downloadable PDFs of sample appellate briefs and pleadings. For reasons stated during the seminar, please do not follow these slavishly; the rules may have changed since these were written.

• Sample notice of intent to seek supervisory writ
• Sample application for supervisory writ
• Sample appeal brief
• Sample La. Supreme Court writ application

Louisiana appellate CLE at Loyola

If you’re looking for appellate CLE in New Orleans, then check out Setting Precedents, a two-day appellate CLE seminar to be held on May 31–June 1 at Loyola Law School. It offers 12.5 hours of CLE, and the organizers have applied to the Louisiana Board of Legal Specialization for accreditation as specialized appellate CLE. I’ll be speaking at the seminar, giving a one-hour presentation on using structure and grammar to empower your writing. To see the full lineup and to register, follow this link.

DRI Appellate Advocacy Seminar

If you want or need high-quality appellate CLE, DRI has what you need—in Las Vegas. The DRI Appellate Advocacy Seminar will be held on March 14–15 at the Planet Hollywood Resort. It’s being held in conjunction with the DRI Trial Tactics Seminar, with a joint session being held on the afternoon of March 15. The faculty includes six appellate judges. Also on the lineup is Bryan Garner, who will talk about using canons of textualism to construct legal arguments. As a bonus, you can stick around on the morning of March 16 for additional CLE with the trial-tactics folks without any additional cost.

Oh, in case you’re board-certified in Louisiana as an appellate specialist, or if you intend to apply for that specialization this year, DRI has applied to the Louisiana Board of Legal Specialization for specialized CLE accreditation. From reading the brochure, it looks like it’ll be good for 9 hours of specialized CLE credit. (For specialists in other states, DRI has applied for specialized CLE accreditation to California, Florida, Ohio, and Texas.)

La. CLE for procrastinators

If you still need a few hours of CLE this year, consider signing up for the Louisiana State Bar Association’s 2017 Wrap Up seminar, to be held this Friday, December 15, at the Sheraton on Canal Street in New Orleans. Included in the multi-topic program will be a one-hour presentation by Thomas M. Flanagan and yours truly on the “Top 10 Ways to Lose an Appeal.” You can register for one hour, two hours, a half day, or the entire 6.25 hour day. According to the LSBA web site, Tom’s and my presentation is approved for an hour of appellate-specialization CLE credit. For more information about the seminar, follow this link.

Bridging the Gap, Oct. 2017: Free appellate CLE stuff

Today I was honored to give a one-hour presentation at the Louisiana State Bar Association’s “Bridging the Gap Seminar,” a CLE program for newly sworn-in lawyers. For them and anyone else who may be interested, here are some PDFs you can download:

• My written materials
• My slide presentation
• A Writ in Time, 51 La. B.J. 338 (Feb./Mar. 2004), on making sure that your application for a supervisory writ is timely
• Immortal Forms: The Vampires of Legal Writing, For the Defense 57 (Jan. 2009), on why forms are the enemies of good briefwriting

Although I counsel against over-reliance on forms (see Immortal Forms above), I’m happy to share some samples of the kinds of court filings discussed during my presentation:

• Notice of intent to seek a supervisory writ
• Application for supervisory writ
• Appeal brief (appellee)

As a bonus, here’s a link to The Wrong Stuff by Judge Alex Kozinski of the U.S. Ninth Circuit, explaining how you, too, can lose your first appeal (or your next one).

Finally, make your briefs look better by following this advice on typography:

• U.S. Seventh Circuit’s Requirements and Suggestions for Typography in Briefs and Other Papers
• Ruth Ann Robbins, Painting With Print: Incorporating Concepts of Typographic and Layout Design into the Text of Legal Writing Documents  

$25 discount on La. appellate CLE

Can you use an extra $25? If so, read on.

Several days ago, I posted about the LSBA’s Advanced Appellate Practice Seminar, scheduled for November 16 in New Orleans. The faculty include La. Supreme Court Justice James Genovese, eight judges from the Fourth and Fifth Circuit Courts of Appeal, and yours truly. Today, I am happy to hand out this bonus goody to this blog’s readers: a $25 discount on the seminar registration fee. Just use this flyer to register—it has a $25 speaker-referral discount.

For La. practitioners: Advanced Appellate Practice Seminar

If you’re looking for high-quality appellate CLE, then consider the Louisiana State Bar Association’s Advanced Appellate Practice Seminar. It will be held on Thursday, November 16, 2017, at the Hyatt Centric French Quarter Hotel (800 Iberville), and will offer 6.25 hours of CLE credit, including 1 hour of professionalism. The faculty will include Justice James Genovese of the Louisiana Supreme Court, eight judges from the Louisiana courts of appeal, several outstanding appellate advocates, and me. Here’s the schedule:

8:00-8:30 a.m.
Registration

8:30-8:45 a.m. - (.25 credits)
Program Overview 
Thomas M. Flanagan • Flanagan Partners • New Orleans

8:45-9:45 a.m. - (1 credit)
Writ Practice: Herlitz, Writ-Grant Considerations, and Law of the Case
Hon. Roland L. Belsome, Jr. • 4th Circuit Court of Appeal • New Orleans 
Hon. Rosemary Ledet • 4th Circuit Court of Appeal • New Orleans 
Jennifer L. Thornton • Stanley, Reuter, Ross, Thornton & Alford • New Orleans

9:45-10:45 a.m. - (1 credit)
Appellate Review: Supreme Court vs. Court of Appeal
Hon. James T. Genovese • Louisiana Supreme Court • Opelousas

10:45-11:00 a.m.
Break

11:00 a.m.-Noon - (1 credit)
The Winning Oral Argument: Mock Argument and Critique
Hon. Paula A. Brown • 4th Circuit Court of Appeal • New Orleans
Hon. Sandra Cabrina Jenkins • 4th Circuit Court of Appeal • New Orleans
Kim M. Boyle • Phelps Dunbar • New Orleans
Harry Rosenberg • Phelps Dunbar • New Orleans
Martin A. Stern • Adams and Reese • New Orleans

Noon-1:15 p.m.
Lunch (on your own)

1:15-2:15 p.m. - (1 credit)
The Role of the “Second Chair” on Appeal
Camille E. Gauthier • Flanagan Partners • New Orleans
Emily E. Ross • Sher Garner Cahill Richter Klein & Hilbert • New Orleans
Alex B. Rothenberg • Gordon, Arata, Montgomery, Barnett, McCollam, 
    Duplantis & Eagan • New Orleans 

2:15-3:15 p.m. - (1 credit)
The Winning Brief: Persuading the Court and Following the Rules
Hon. Terri F. Love • 4th Circuit Court of Appeal • New Orleans
Hon. Fredericka H. Wicker • 5th Circuit Court of Appeal • Gretna 
Kelly B. Becker • Liskow & Lewis • New Orleans

3:15-3:30 p.m.
Break

3:30-4:30 p.m. - (1 credit - Prof.)
Professionalism on Appeal 
Hon. Regina Bartholomew Woods • 4th Circuit Court of Appeal • New Orleans
Hon. Jude G. Gravois • 5th Circuit Court of Appeal • Gretna
Thomas M. Flanagan • Flanagan Partners • New Orleans
Raymond P. Ward • Adams and Reese • New Orleans

For more information about the seminar or to register online, follow this link.

Counting Each Shot: The CLE Presentation

This morning, I was privileged to give a one-hour in-house CLE presentation at the Louisiana Fourth Circuit for the court’s law clerks and staff attorneys. It was based on an article I wrote a few years ago, Counting Each Shot: Techniques for Emphasis and De-emphasis. It was a clinical analysis of the respective fact statements by Justices Stevens and Scalia in Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002). We examined the techniques Justice Scalia used to play up facts supporting his opinion, and those Justice Stevens used to do the opposite. For anyone who may be interested, here are some freebies from the presentation (all in PDF).

• A handout showing the two fact statements side by side
• Written materials
• Slide presentation

La. CLE on Advanced Appellate Practice

If you’re reading this, then here’s some CLE you’ll be interested in: the LSBA’s Advanced Appellate Practice seminar, to be held in New Orleans on November 16. The coordinator, Tom Flanagan, has put together a great faculty that includes nine appellate judges, including Justice James Genovese of the Louisiana Supreme Court. I’ll be on a panel with Tom, Judge Regina Bartholomew Woods (La. 4th Cir.), and Judge Jude Gravois (La. 5th Cir.) to talk about professionalism. To see the entire lineup, follow this link.