Finding Your Place in the Sun:
How to Create, Market and Manage an Appellate Practice
L. Rachel Helyar*

 

Five appellate practitioners representing different types of appellate practice in different parts of the country converged in Reno to discuss their outlook and experiences. Moderated by sole practitioner Walter Sargent from Colorado Springs, the panel consisted of two attorneys from small firms: Wendy Lascher, who heads her own firm in Ventura, California, and Robert Glazier, who works with a single associate in Miami, Florida; and two attorneys from large firms: Greg Coleman, who heads the appellate practice group at the Austin, Texas office of Weil Gotshal & Manges, and Mark Kravitz, who started and heads the appellate practice group at Wiggin & Dana, a 150-member firm in New Haven, Connecticut.

Lascher and Glazier discussed the challenges facing a single attorney establishing an appellate practice, including building a name and reputation and finding clients. Glazier created a website serving the trial lawyers' bar to get his name out in the community, and recommended making contributions to bar journals as a way to build one's reputation while establishing a practice. Lascher, who has practiced appellate law for thirty years and now works with "two and a half" associates, added that she gets a lot of work through referrals from other appellate lawyers.

Kravitz and Coleman discussed the issues facing large firm appellate attorneys in a large law firm, who must "sell" their services to trial attorneys within the firm. Both agreed that trial attorneys need to be reassured that the appellate group is not out to steal their clients. Trial attorneys should always be treated with respect and given a role in the appellate process. When taking appeals from outside the firm, appellate lawyers need to check carefully for conflicts with the firm's existing clients.

All four panelists and the moderator agreed that the key to successful appellate practice is to be very good at what you do and be courteous and respectful of co-counsel and opponents alike. As Glazier succinctly put it, "Be good. Be nice."

*Ms. Helyar is counsel at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP in Los Angeles, where she is a member of the firm's Appellate Law & Strategy group.