CORT Legal Writing and Appellate Advocacy

Description

Registration Deadline - Tuesday, February 19, 2019

The first day (March 12) will focus on Legal Writing, featuring an approach previously used with the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of West Virginia. The lead trainers are David Krech, Director of Appellate Advocacy and Director of Legal Writing at the WVU College of Law; and Jessica Haught, Associate Dean for Administration and Professor of Legal Reasoning, Research, and Writing at the WVU College of Law. This session is not a reprise of a law school “Blue Book – Format & Style – Learn the Rules” approach. Instead, this first day of this training will offer practical advice to make your writing more compelling and helpful to the court. Training will include discussion of writing techniques, and checklists for self-review of your writing. In the afternoon attendees will work in small groups with a trainer to review/edit/improve Memoranda of Law from actual legal-services cases (anonymous authors, not from attending participants). You will identify the strengths and opportunities–both large and small–for revision of the Memoranda.

The next half-day, March 13, will focus on Appellate Advocacy, both written and oral. In the first session, Jon Laramore, Director of Indiana Legal Services, Inc. will address the particular aspects of writing for the appellate court. Mr. Laramore has argued more than 100 appeals in state and federal appellate courts and those courts have published more than 200 opinions of his cases. As a founder of the Indiana State Bar Association’s appellate pro bono project, Laramore was named the 2013 Appellate Lawyer of the Year in Indiana. In addition, we will have a panel of experienced appellate litigators sharing their insights about planning, preparing and arguing appellate cases. Finally, we will hear from a panel of appellate judges, giving us the view from their side of the bench as to effective and ineffective techniques. The training will conclude at noon on March 13.