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There’s a new book on my shelf. I’ve placed it right next to McFadden’s book on Georgia Appellate Practice, Aldisert’s Winning on Appeal, and Butterick’s Typography for Lawyers. That book is Ross Guberman’s Point Made: How to Write Like the Nation’s Top Advocates. Unlike many books on the subject, this one takes legal writing from…

Last week, I came to the Supreme Court to watch the parties argue a case where I had written the amicus brief. With no pressure on me, I could pay closer attention to the lawyers than I usually do.What I took from the session I watched was a bunch of questions about whether to use…

Every now and again, I attend a CLE that does more than satisfy the hours requirement. Occasionally, there is a seminar where I walk out of the room with a new set of tools to become a better lawyer. Such was the case with the Georgia Appellate Practice Seminar sponsored by the Appellate Practice Section…

On February 25, 2011, the Georgia Appellate Practice Section will host a CLE on Appellate Practice at the State Bar of Georgia. The event has something to offer lawyers who practice before Georgia appellate courts, whether the lawyer is a seasoned appellate practitioner or only handles the occasional appeal. The event will cover all the major…

When appellate lawyers talk about judges, we ordinarily talk about how wrong they often are and about how to preserve their mistakes for later use. Otherwise, we don’t much speak of the trial judge. Yet, at least in Georgia, every direct appeal begins at the trial court level where appellate lawyers have the unenviable task…

  Approximately 16 attendees made the snow-ladened trek to the appellate practice section luncheon Nashville, Tennessee, held in conjunction with the State Bar of Georgia’s mid-year meeting. The Honorable Christopher McFadden, newly elected to the Georgia Court of Appeals, gave a fascinating talk on the process of campaigning for the appellate bench, the process of…

With the Georgia Supreme Court, Georgia Court of Appeals, and other courts moving to e-filing, an important question arises. Should appellate lawyers write for the page or for the screen? Much would turn, it seems, on whether workflow within the courts matches the way work flows to the courts. Are the judges and justices reading…

Being an appellate lawyer is pretty much the same thing as being a professional writer – with a few notable exceptions. Writer’s block and procrastination are not really an option in the kind of writing I do. The penalty for incurable writer’s block isn’t mere artistic angst. Consequences for writer’s block include a client’s anger,…

If any case qualifies as an old chestnut, it would be Mapp v. Ohio, the landmark case that provided that evidence gathered in violation of a suspect’s Fourth Amendment rights should be excluded from use at trial. Restricting the use of illegally-gathered evidence is the punishment for the illegal conduct. If there’s a case that…

I just finished my second draft of a Brief of Appellant for a case I will soon be filing in the Supreme Court of Georgia. It is the first brief I have filed since I purchased and read Matthew Butterick’s fantastic book, Typography for Lawyers. I’ve written about this book already, and I don’t want…