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As part of our national Litigation Group, we offer a team of more than 30 experienced attorneys who focus their practice in whole or in part on appeals. We offer clients appellate counsel in 18 local markets coast-to-coast and represents clients in a wide variety of industries and areas of the law including automotive, construction, financial services and banking, insurance, securities, energy, employment and real estate.
We are admitted to practice and have handled appeals in all of the federal circuit courts of appeal, the United States Supreme Court, and both the intermediate and highest-level appellate courts in more than 20 different states. We count more than 20 former judicial law clerks among our numbers, and recognize the value of their insight into how different courts operate. In addition, one of our attorneys authored the book on Nebraska appellate practice.
As appellate attorneys, we understand that handling a case on appeal involves different skills and strategic considerations than trial practice:
- Our focus shifts from developing and proving facts to the legal issues that decide the case.
- We work to articulate the issues in a way that will be most persuasive to a panel of judges. We are focused on the dispositive legal issues, answering questions, and showing the judges why we’re right.
- A well-crafted appellate brief is critical for success. Our appellate attorneys love to write.
- As appellate briefs undergo greater judicial scrutiny than written materials prepared at trial, we don’t recycle trial material but rather work rigorously toward original work in its own right.
- We use oral arguments as an opportunity to engage in a dialogue with appellate judges regarding the issues of the case.