Appellate Advocacy

Most lawsuits that are tried before a judge or jury may be appealed to a higher court. When a case is appealed to an intermediate court (many times called the court of appeals) or the highest court in the jurisdiction (many times called the supreme court), an appellate litigator may handle the broad range of activities involved with the proceedings. This practice area, which includes brief writing and oral arguments before the court, is referred to as appellate advocacy or appellate practice.

The rules of appellate practice and procedure are quite specialized, and an appellate lawyer must construct persuasive arguments that account not only for the error(s) of law upon which the appeal is based, but also for the various standards of review that the intermediate or high court will use to determine whether the trial court committed reversible error.

To be successful appellate advocates, lawyers who work in this area must excel both at writing briefs and crafting oral arguments. They also must be detail-oriented as appeals often involve reviewing hundreds or thousands of pages of trial transcripts and associated exhibits to fully understand the trial court proceedings and make their best arguments for their clients.

Appellate lawyers may work for the government, in-house counsel and corporations, or public interest organizations. Many aspiring appellate advocates gain useful experience in the field by clerking for an appellate court judge.