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APPELLATE ADVOCACY
Marguerite Grant
Fall 2004
Wednesdays 5:
Room 10 (
Office: Room 88 Cargill
Email: Marguerite.Grant@state.ma.us
(the best way to reach me)
Work
phone: 617-679-6534
Fax: 617-577-1731
Administrative
Assistant: Mary Murphy, Room 65 Cargill,
617-373-2023
Office
Hours: Thursdays,
Required
Course Materials:
Mary Beth
Beazley, A Practical Guide to Appellate
Advocacy (Aspen L. & Bus., 2002).
ALWD
& Darby Dickerson, ALWD Citation Manual (
Reserve
KFM2929.A195 2002 (also in Reference and in
Mass. R. App.
P. also available at www.massreports.com/courtrules
and www.lawlib.state.ma.us/rules.html
Recommended:
William
Strunk & E.B. White, The Elements of Style (4th ed. 2000),
available online at www.bartleby.com/141
Call the bookstore (617/373-2286) or Gnomon Copy
(617/536-4600) to determine if the course materials are available in advance.
On
Reserve:
Sample briefs,
real and from moot court competitions
Class
Schedule:
Wednesdays,
Assignments:
This course focuses
on appellate brief writing and oral argument.
Over the course of the quarter, you will prepare a draft and then a
final version of an appellate brief. In
the final weeks of the quarter, you will present a practice and then a final
oral argument. During the quarter, you
will hand in several short assignments, most of which will be a draft of a
section of your brief.
Handing in Assignments:
You are
encouraged to hand in assignments (with the exception of the first draft brief
and final brief) to me by email. If you
do hand in an assignment by email, you must
print it out and proofread it in
hardcopy before you email it to me – it is the best way to catch basic mistakes,
like forgetting to put your name on your paper.
I may ask in class to see the hardcopy you printed out before you
emailed the assignment to me. If your
name is not on your paper I will assume you did not proofread it in hardcopy
and I will require you to hand in a hardcopy before I correct it.
Filing
Deadlines:
All briefs must
be submitted to Mary Murphy in Room 65 Cargill by the deadlines
set forth below.
Issues
Presented
Statement
of the Case
Prior Proceedings
Statement of the Facts
Summary
of the Argument
Argument (including a statement of the standard of review for each issue)
Cover
page (blue or red)
Table
of Contents
Table
of Authorities
Issues
Presented
Statement
of the Case
Prior Proceedings
Statement of the Facts
Summary
of the Argument
Argument
(including a statement of the standard of review for each issue)
Conclusion
Statutory
Addendum
Certificate
of Service (specifying whether by hardcopy or email)
Individual Conferences:
I will hold
individual conferences with each of you during the week of October 18 to
discuss my comments on your first draft and suggested revisions. I will also hold individual conferences with
you during the week of November 1 to review the videotape of your practice oral
argument and to assist you in preparation for your final argument.
Oral
Arguments:
Practice oral
arguments will be held during the week of October 25. Final oral arguments will be scheduled during
the week of November 8.
Sample
briefs:
I have placed
some sample briefs on reserve so that you can get an idea of what a real
appellate brief looks like. There are
also some briefs from moot court competitions.
Please use the samples as general guidelines only. Appellate brief format requirements vary
from one appellate court to another.
Citation
Manual:
The citation
manual for this course will be the ALWD Citation Manual – not the
“Bluebook.”
Discussion
of ideas and outside assistance:
You may
discuss the issues raised in your brief with other students in the class as
well as those who are not. We may be
critiquing each other’s writing anonymously in class; from that, you will know
what other students are writing. You
should learn from other students’ writing and apply the critique to your own
writing. However, your final product
should be your own work.
Division
of teams:
The class
will be divided into teams of two. Half
the teams will represent the appellant and the other half will represent the
appellee. The teams will argue against
each other at the end of the quarter during final oral arguments.
Team partners
will be responsible for producing one brief between them. There are two issues to be addressed in each
brief. Each issue will have its own
argument section, and the author of that section will make that oral
argument. However, the remaining
sections of the brief will be a joint effort.
Your
evaluation in the course will be based upon your individual sections of your
final brief, your final oral argument, class participation, and timeliness in
meeting deadlines.
Please note
that the timing of and material covered in class meetings may vary, depending
on scheduled activities (e.g., student conferences, guest
speakers). I will announce variations in
class.
Class: Wednesday, September 1
Introduction
to the course, discussion of course policies, distribution of the problem and
schedule of assignments. Review of problem and research strategies. Importance of appellate
rules. Discussion
of appellate brief structure.
Teams and issues will be assigned once the class roster becomes final.
Read
before class: Beazley, pp. 1-7
Week
2: September 6-10
Class: Wednesday, September 8
Appellate
court jurisdiction. Issues Presented. Standards of review. Appellate rules. Prior Proceedings.
Read
before class: Beazley, pp. 9-45, 109-125. Hand
in: Rules exercise.
Week
3: September 13-17
No Class:
Wednesday, September 15 is Thursday schedule for Rosh Hashanah.
Week
4: September 20-24
Class: Wednesday, September 22
Statement
of the Facts. Using facts persuasively. Ethics in appellate
practice. Creating
effective point headings. Writing persuasively.
Read
before class: Beazley, pp. 47-87, 128-148. Hand
in: Draft issue.
Week
5: September 27-October 1
Class: Wednesday, September 29
Argument
and Summary of the Argument.
Read
before class: Beazley, pp. 99-107, 125-128, 149-180. Hand in: Draft point headings.
Week
6: October 4-8
Class: Wednesday, October 6
Citations,
revisions, and editing. Table of authorities, table
of contents. Last
minute brief additions.
Read
before class: Beazley, pp. 89-107
Class: Wednesday, October 13
Oral
argument preparation, delivery, response, and rebuttal.
Read before class:
Beazley, pp. 181-198
FIRST
DRAFT OF BRIEF DUE
Week
8: October 18-22
No class this
week – individual conferences on first draft of brief.
Week
9: October 25-29
No class this
week – oral arguments, practice rounds.
Week
10: November 1-5
No class this
week – individual reviews of practice round videos.
FINAL
BRIEF DUE
Week
11: November 8-12
No class this
week – final oral arguments instead.
Week
12: November 15-19
No class this
week – exams.
Based on the
Massachusetts Rules of Appellate Procedure, answer the following questions and
cite to the relevant rule for each. If
there is more than one possible correct answer, give the answer that would make
your brief as short as possible.