Session 4: Handling an Appeal—Preparing Briefs (Part 1)

This post features the video and slidedeck for the fourth lecture in my Appellate Practice and Procedure course. The presentation appears below.

Oral argument is more glamorous, but preparing briefs is the most important task in any appeal. This session overviews the basics of appellate brief-writing and then focuses on how to approach the appellant’s opening brief—the most significant of all because it’s typically the first salvo before the appellate court and seeks to change something the lower court did.

Some of the mechanics of preparing briefs have changed since I recorded this presentation. For example, copying and binding have given way to e-filing in many jurisdictions, and hyperlinking has become more commonplace. But the basic approaches remain the same.

One topic I address is issue selection. The surest way to lose an appellate court’s attention is to file a brief that obscures potentially meritorious arguments with others that stand no reasonable probability for success. An experienced appellate practitioner will cull those points and focus on the ones most likely to gain the court’s attention.