At cocktail parties, I frequently get asked what appellate
lawyers do. I typically answer that sort of question in
procedural terms, explaining how we help make sure that the law is
properly presented to the jury, that the judgment conforms to the
law and the evidence, and that any legal errors committed by the
trial judge are corrected on appeal. But I am sometimes
tempted to answer by describing the broad substantive range of
appellate practice.
Appellate lawyers stick their collective noses into
everything. A Google News search on the word
"appeal" produced the following, all occurring within 24
hours of the writing of this post:
- "Immigration board hears deportation appeal from former Nazi guard"
- "A man is appealing the dismissal of his lawsuit that sought to undo the sale of The Balsams Grand Resort"
- "A federal appeals court in Virginia is set to review a former Texas businessman's conviction in a $100 million life insurance fraud scheme"
- "South Africa's Standard Bank said on Friday it would appeal an arbitration ruling to refund at least $60 million worth of shares to a union pension fund"
- "The former pharmacist, who is serving a life sentence for fatally shooting a wounded, unarmed robber in 2009, is asking the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to overturn the murder conviction"
Few appellate practitioners have a docket quite that
broad. But my own cases at the moment involve bankruptcy,
chiropractic practice, government contracts, immigration, insurance
fraud, medical malpractice, oil & gas, partnership disputes,
property insurance, real estate, securities fraud, title insurance,
trade secrets, and zoning. A trial lawyer likely couldn't
competently handle such a wide range of cases, but the nature of
appellate practice – confinement to the appellate record, to
complaints preserved in the trial court, and to well-established
standards of review – means that generalist appellate lawyers
can learn what they need to know about the substantive law
applicable to each case, while relying on their expertise in
dealing with the appellate court system.
In Abraham Lincoln's day, lawyers hung out their shingles and
never knew whether the next client through the door would need a
will, or a contract, or a divorce, or to file or defend a
lawsuit. Those days are largely gone; most of today's
lawyers specialize to one degree or another. But the fun and
the challenge of practicing appellate law is to compete with those
specialists, using the home-field advantage of a highly-structured
appellate process to make up for having to learn the opponent's
playbook for each new appeal.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.