) to load the story into this menu for later reading
Subcommittees
Subcommittee Descriptions
Appellate Rules and Statutes Subcommittee
This subcommittee focuses on reviewing amendments or changes to existing federal and state appellate rules and statutes and new federal and state appellate rules and statutes and analyzing those changes or new rules or statutes for our committee members and, more generally, for the legal community. This subcommittee will also play a significant role in working on our committee's upcoming Practitioners' Guide to Appellate Practice.
Bar Liaison Subcommittee
This subcommittee focuses on developing and maintaining relationships with other national, state, and local bar associations for the purposes of joint programming and initiatives, membership recruitment, and community service. This subcommittee also actively works with our Diversity Initiative and Young Lawyer Subcommittees to attract lawyers of diverse backgrounds to our committee and also to identify services particularly helpful to lawyers of diverse backgrounds.
Diversity Initiative Subcommittee
This subcommittee focuses on programming and initiatives for the purposes of providing services to lawyers of diverse backgrounds, encouraging lawyers of diverse backgrounds to become more involved and assume leadership positions in the Appellate Practice Committee, and providing services to communities with members of diverse backgrounds. This subcommittee works closely with our Bar Liaison, Membership Recruitment, Programming, and Young Lawyers Subcommittees in accomplishing these objectives.
Membership Communications Subcommittee
This subcommittee focuses on maintaining and improving the content on our committee website and in fostering communications between our committee members. The functions of this subcommittee include assisting with listserve communications with all of our committee members, editing case notes for our committee website that are provided by our committee circuit editors, and helping to provide other timely content for our committee website.
Membership Recruitment Subcommittee
This subcommittee focuses on efforts to expand our committee's membership through membership drives, community outreach events, and presentations to other legal organizations. This subcommittee works closely with our Bar Liaison, Diversity Initiative, and Young Lawyers Subcommittees in accomplishing these objectives.
Pro Bono Appeals Subcommittee
This subcommittee focuses on coordinating requests for help from committee members with pro bono appeals in the federal and state courts. In recent years, our committee members have been involved in a wide variety of pro bono appeals including death penalty appeals, immigration appeals, appeals on behalf of indigent criminal defendants, and appeals involving bankruptcy and family law issues for economically disadvantaged clients. Our committee members have also been involved in several high profile pro bono cases in the United States Supreme Court.
Programming Subcommittee
This subcommittee develops and presents programs for our committee in many fora. We frequently present formal substantive programs and less formal breakfast programs at the ABA Annual Meeting and the Section of Litigation Annual Conference. For example, at the Section Annual Conference in April 2006, our committee presented a substantive program, titled The Advocate's Art: Appellate Advocacy, which featured a mock appellate argument presented by former United States Solicitors General Kenneth Starr and Walter Dellinger, and a breakfast program on bankruptcy appeals (that was co-sponsored by the Bankruptcy Litigation Committee) and that featured Hon. Eritha Smith, United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Central District of California. For the August 2006 ABA Annual Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii, our committee will be presenting a substantive program, titled Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, an Interactive Retrospective, and a breakfast program, titled What the Movies Teach Us About Appellate Advocacy. This subcommittee also develops CLE teleconferences, such as the one our committee presented in November 2005 on presenting outstanding oral arguments, and is in the process of developing regional CLE programs focusing on appellate brief writing and oral advocacy.
Publications Subcommittee
This subcommittee develops substantive content for our committee website, our quarterly Appellate Practice Journal, and special publications that the committee undertakes. In so doing, it works closely with our Membership Communications and Special Projects Subcommittees and our Appellate Practice Journal Board of Editors.
Special Projects Subcommittee
This new subcommittee works on special programming and publications for the committee. Currently, this subcommittee is working on our committee's Practitioners' Guide to Appellate Advocacy, which we are targeting for publication in 2007. This subcommittee also will likely assist in presenting the regional CLE programs that our committee is developing.
Young Lawyers Subcommittee
This subcommittee focuses on providing services to and recruitment of young or junior lawyers. It often helps to provide content for our committee website and publications that would be particularly beneficial to young or more junior lawyers. This subcommittee also works with our Bar Liaison and Diversity Initiative Subcommittees to help provide services to lawyers of diverse backgrounds.
Appellate Practice Journal Board of Editors
Our Board of Editors has primary responsibility for editing the content of our quarterly Appellate Practice Journal and for placing that content in an accessible and enjoyable format for our committee members. We have recently completely revamped the content and format of the Appellate Practice Journal and are pleased to offer a publication that contains scholarly analysis and practical advice for general appellate practitioners as well as for young lawyers and lawyers of diverse backgrounds.
