On Tuesday evening, we attended An Evening with Justice Antonin Scalia, sponsored by the Washington, DC Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society. Justice Scalia spoke about his new book, Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges; took questions on a wide range of subjects, during an impressively long Q-and-A session; and signed copies of his book for the adoring masses.

The event took place in a packed ballroom — standing room only — at the Marriott Wardman Park. If you’re interested, you can read a more detailed write-up, after the jump.

This is the first part of our account, focused on Justice Scalia’s formal presentation. A second installment, summarizing the question-and-answer session, will be posted later.

Justice Scalia was introduced by Gibson Dunn partner Doug Cox, a Federalist Society stalwart. In describing Justice Scalia’s new book, Cox said it is “ranked #1 on Amazon [pause]…. among books on the courts.” The audience laughed, although it wasn’t clear that Cox’s humor was intentional.

Justice Scalia took the podium, receiving a standing ovation from the highly energized crowd of Supreme Court groupies. Flashbulbs erupted as dozens of people held up the cellphones to the justice, as if he were a Hollywood celebrity. They don’t call him the Rock Star of One First Street for nothing.

Justice Scalia was sporting the inside-the-Beltway uniform: dark suit, white shirt, and a surprisingly pretty, silver-blue tie. If you think that sounds boring, then you need to vote for more female partners and politicians (cough cough, Hillary). Then fashion commentary on politics will come alive. Aside from the necktie — cultural history here, courtesy of summer associate Divljan Shatterhand Steele — men in law and politics don’t have many ways to express themselves through sartorially.

Justice Scalia’s remarks on his book were entertaining and engaging, although much of his material — including some of the jokes — has previously appeared in interviews of him or media reports about prior appearances. Here are a few highlights:

— He described himself and co-author Bryan Garner, the legal writing guru, as “SNOOTS” : “syntax nerds of our time.”

— He talked about “retro reading.” This Daily Journal article sums up the practice:

Scalia, for example, said he learned that many judges prepare for cases by “retro-reading,” reading legal briefs in reverse order, the reply brief first, then the responding brief and the opening brief last - just the opposite, of course, of what a lawyer would expect.

“I knew one judge who did that and I thought it was sort of weird,” he said. “But it turns out, as we learned from consulting with these other people, that there are a lot of judges who do that. I think it’s a dirty thing to do to counsel, but there’s no doubt that it tells you right at the outset what the case is about.”

Because some judges “retro read,” lawyers should make each brief self-contained.

— He recommended that if you’re the second to speak at an oral argument, and your opponent made a powerful point, you should refute that point early in your presentation, then go on to make your own case (principle #82 in the book’s “general principles of argumentation”). Scalia described that process as “making room for your argument.”

(He noted that there is some disagreement on this — some say you should lead with your strongest argument — but he cited Aristotle in support of his position. Aristotle plus Scalia: who can disagree?)

— Funny quip: “One chapter is titled ‘Learn How To Handle A Difficult Judge.’ I enjoyed writing that.”

— He talked about how he and Garner — although they had an excellent collaboration in writing the book, and agreed on most issues — did have a few points of disagreement. E.g., the use of substantive footnotes (principle 51: “Swear off substantive footnotes — or not.”).

— Another area of disagreement: the use of contractions in legal briefs. Garner likes them because they are conversational, but Justice Scalia does not. Contractions in legal writing “drag the courts down to the level of the marketplace,” Nino groused (to laughter).

Then Justice Scalia concluded his presentation. “I don’t want to read the whole book to you — then you won’t buy it!”

The proceedings moved into Q-and-A. We’ll write about that in a subsequent post.

Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges [Thomson/West]
Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges [Amazon]
An Evening with Justice Antonin Scalia [Federalist Society]