"You don’t want to lose credibility," Justice Thomas told Bryan Garner during their 2007 interview [pdf]. "That is the one thing you bring with you. And if you lose it, it’s hard to get it back." A lawyer’s credibility is his or her stock in trade, and that’s especially true in the appellate courts. Appellate judges rely on … Continue Reading
My favorite part of my job is oral argument. A well-prepared oral argument with a hot bench is everything that draws a lawyer into appellate practice — a fast-paced but thoughtful give-and-take about what the law is, and where it should go. As Justice Scalia told Bryan Garner, “I think good counsel welcomes, welcomes questions.” Still, nothing … Continue Reading
"God created man because he loved to hear stories," goes an Ethiopian proverb. You might think that narrative has little or nothing to do with writing a good brief. But as Professor James Boyd White reminds us, "The law always begins in a story . . . It ends in a story, too." Chief Justice Roberts tells … Continue Reading
In 2006 and 2007, legal writing icon Bryan Garner had an amazing opportunity — he interviewed eight of the nine then-sitting Justices of the United States Supreme Court on legal writing and appellate advocacy. The videotapes have been posted on Garner’s LawProse site for a while now, but last year, Garner made the Justices’ advice even … Continue Reading
