Appellate Lawyers Learn To Play Well With Others

The typical image of an appellate lawyer is someone who picks up a cold record once trial court proceedings have ended, analyzes it, researches the law, writes a brief, and delivers an oral argument – all as part of a relatively solitary enterprise. Indeed, when asked to think of one word that best describes an appellate lawyer, a second-year law student at Georgetown University Law Center answered, "monastic."

This notion that appeals are a wholly separate part of the litigation process begins early in law school, where first-year law students in legal research and writing classes are often handed a closed record from which they are required to draft an appellate brief and participate in a mock argument.¹ The solitary nature of appellate practice was reinforced in recent decades by the increasing view of appellate lawyering as a specialized field.