Appellate Law

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Which firm just paid out almost $2 million in signing bonuses for a half-dozen Supreme Court clerks?

You’re the in-house lawyer; you pay the bills; you can do this. Right?

A jogging lawyer beats his $50 citation. In epic waste of resources, city appeals.

Begging for money on the internet gets easier and easier...

Supreme Court oral argument might be the least welcoming place to black people in the entire country...

Italian Supreme Court to hear whether or not Foxy Knoxy gets retried.

Can you believe the egregious Brady violations in this case? The Ninth Circuit barely could, it seems....

Earlier this week, Ted Olson and David Boies, along with lawyers from Cleary Gottlieb and Reed Smith, argued an appeal with billions of dollars at stake.

Former Congressman Tom DeLay awaits appeal of his conviction for corruption and money laundering. Before he goes away for three years in the "other" Big House, let's look back at his story.

Judge Cooke has ruled on the motion for sanctions against TD Bank and its former counsel, Greenberg Traurig. What did she decide?

* The Ninth Circuit denies en banc rehearing in the Prop 8 case. Can we please hurry up and get this thing in front of the Supreme Court already? [Ninth Circuit via Metro Weekly] * AOL’s attorneys at DLA Piper sent a nastygram to a Maryland blogger, alleging intellectual property infringement, based on the blog’s aggregation. Because you know, AOL/the Huffington Post has never aggregated anything. [Maryland Juice] * Just before she was convicted of public intoxication, DLA Piper partner Laura Flippin was also accused of lying under oath by the judge in the case. In short, things did not go as well they could have. [The Flat Hat] * Even more law schools are shrinking their class sizes. Do we have a trend on our hands yet? [Crain's Cleveland Business] * Remember the law school martyr Phillip J. Closius? He may no longer be Dean of University of Baltimore Law, but he has not finished his crusade to improve the financial security of students. Keep fightin’ the good fight, Phil. [Baltimore Sun] * Congratulations to the 15 firms that made the NLJ’s 2012 Appellate Hot List. Most are Biglaw shops, but three elite boutiques made the cut: Bancroft, Horvitz & Levy, and Kellogg Huber. [National Law Journal] * Ever wondered what life in prison is like? Check out this podcast, in which Jeffrey Deskovic, who served 16 years in prison for a rape and murder he did not commit, is interviewed by Professor Zach Shemtob (disclosure: Shemtob is Lat’s co-author and special friend). [Cruel and Unusual: A Podcast on Punishment]

Litigators, how should you NOT open a brief?

What does Chief Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit think of dissents from the denial of rehearing en banc (aka dissentals)?

Above the Law talks to veteran SCOTUS litigator Carter Phillips about last week's Obamacare arguments.

How should you handle adverse precedent when litigating an appeal? The Tenth Circuit has some thoughts on what you should NOT do....

Lately the Seventh Circuit has been laying down its pimp hand. Biglaw just got a big benchslap -- from none other than Chief Judge Easterbrook. Which firm incurred His Honor's wrath, and for what alleged infraction?

* Ken Cuccinelli, Virginia’s Attorney General, wants Rick Perry’s election law suit to be dismissed, because really, what’s the point? Standing or not, Perry got completely hosed in Iowa. [Bloomberg] * What’s next for Stephen Glass? When all else fails, hire a high-profile appellate team to do your dirty work for you. He could write […]

Of course not! But the headline got your attention, didn’t it? The notion of Judge Richard Posner as being anything other than a genius will certainly make people sit up and take notice. There’s a reason why there’s a Facebook group called Richard Posner for Philosopher King (of which I am a proud member). It […]

On Thanksgiving Day, while you were enjoying your turkey, we wrote about a different bird: namely, the ostrich. In a somewhat snarky opinion, Judge Richard Posner of the Seventh Circuit compared a lawyer appearing before him to an ostrich. What did the lawyer in question have to say for himself?