8:55 Welcome and Introductions
9:00 The Nuts and Bolts of Appellate Litigation in North Carolina Courts‡
Judge Allegra Collins, North Carolina Court of Appeals, Raleigh
Judge Richard D. Dietz, North Carolina Court of Appeals, Raleigh
Judge Fred Gore, North Carolina Court of Appeals, Raleigh
The past year has been a year of change for appellate practice in the North Carolina courts and there are more exciting changes to come. In this session, three Court of Appeals judges bring you up to speed on the recent and upcoming changes in practice, procedure, and technology at the appellate courts. They describe how to use technology to improve the quality of written and oral presentations, discuss the future of remote oral arguments, explore the shift to e-filing in the trial courts and its ramifications for appellate practice, explain North Carolina's new universal citation system, and preview some appellate rule changes that are likely to arrive soon.
10:03 Hidden Gems: The Surprising Stories Behind Some of North Carolina's Appellate Practices
Matthew N. Leerberg, Fox Rothschild LLP, Raleigh
Elizabeth Brooks Scherer, Fox Rothschild LLP, Raleigh
Over a span of several years, Matt Leerberg and Beth Scherer researched and wrote a comprehensive treatise on North Carolina appellate practice and procedure. As they did so, they discovered that many modern appellate practices have a fascinating historical pedigree. Why are so many mistakes at the notice-of-appeal stage considered "jurisdictional"? Why are orders entered after a final judgment appealable at all? How did the Appellate Rules come to take their current form? Join us as we explore these and many other questions through the lens of history.
11:04 Break
11:14 Strategies and Resources for Addressing the Risks of Remote Work for Mental Health and Professionalism†
Judge Lucy N. Inman, North Carolina Court of Appeals, Raleigh
Robert E. Harrington, Robinson Bradshaw & Hinson PA, Charlotte
Richard E. Hicks Ph.D., HRC Behavioral Health & Psychiatry PA, Chapel Hill
The shift to a remote working environment over the past year has serious implications for lawyers' mental health and standards of professionalism. Remote work and accompanying strains on mental health can enhance feelings of isolation, heighten the risk of depression and substance abuse, and lead to unprofessional behavior as lawyers in their communication and work product. Appellate lawyers can be especially prone to these risks given the sometimes-isolating nature of appellate work. In this session, presenters draw on their experience to discuss these issues, advise attorneys on how to recognize situations in which they or their colleagues might benefit from intervention, and make lawyers aware of strategies and resources that are available to help them get back on track.
12:15 Lunch Break
12:45 From the Private Bar to the Federal Bench: What I Know Now That I Wish I Knew Then
Judge Allison J. Rushing, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, Asheville
Sripriya Narasimhan, North Carolina Department of Justice, Raleigh
In March 2019, after spending nearly a decade practicing appellate litigation, the Honorable Allison Jones Rushing moved from the private bar to the federal bench. Despite many years at the height of the practice, the transition to the bench has brought a host of insights that Judge Rushing wishes she had known when she was writing briefs and crafting oral arguments to convince her now-judicial colleagues. In this session, Sripriya Narasimhan interviews Judge Rushing about those insights and other lessons learned over the last two years.
1:17 Issue Framing
Mark A. Hiller, Robinson Bradshaw & Hinson PA, Raleigh
Timothy P. Lendino, Compass Group North America, Charlotte
How do you turn a dry legal argument into a compelling story that grabs the judge's attention? What does it mean for your argument to have a "theme"? This session focuses on the elusive yet critical skill of issue framing, offering practical guidance. While often referred to in the context of appellate brief writing, issue framing can strengthen your written and oral advocacy in any court, and even outside the courtroom.
2:19 Break
2:29 Cross-Appeals: What, Why, When and How in State and Federal Courts
James W. Doggett, North Carolina Department of Justice, Raleigh
Michelle A. Liguori, Ellis & Winters LLP, Raleigh
Cross-appeals are not everyday affairs in appellate litigation, but when necessary, they can be vital to protecting your clients' interests. In this session, Jim Doggett and Michelle Liguori draw on their significant experience to explain what a cross-appeal is, why you may want or need to file a cross-appeal, and the procedures to be followed for briefing and arguing cross‑appeals under both the North Carolina and federal rules. The state-law portion includes a discussion of cross-appeals in the North Carolina Supreme Court, including dissent-based appeals and cases heard on discretionary review. The presenters also survey data about recent cross-appeals in the North Carolina appellate courts and the Fourth Circuit and discuss a few landmark cross-appeals that highlight the governing rules and pitfalls to avoid.
3:29 The Lighting of a Fire: Lessons Learned in Supervising Appellate Clinic Students
Sean E. Andrussier, Duke University School of Law, Durham
John J. Korzen, Wake Forest University School of Law, Winston-Salem
It has been said that "education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." In this session, the presenters discuss lessons learned from supervising 3Ls in the appellate clinics they have directed for more than 25 combined years. With advice appropriate for young appellate attorneys, those who supervise young appellate attorneys and everybody in between, they share thoughts on the "lighting of a fire" in appellate counsel.
4:00 Adjourn
† Indicates portion providing Substance Abuse/Mental Health credit
‡ Indicates portion providing Technology Training credit
Thank you for joining us Effective Appellate Litigation: Improving Your Practice in State and Federal Courts of Appeals (2021 Appellate Practice Section Program).
When done well, the practice of appellate litigation is the art of constantly learning.
Sean E. Andrussier is a clinical professor of law at Duke University School of Law, where he is the director of Duke's Appellate Litigation Clinic. He also teaches courses in appellate practice and scholarly writing, and he is running an appellate externship program in the field of federal criminal defense.
Before joining Duke's faculty, he practiced law with firms in N.C. and Washington, D.C. He previously clerked for Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson (D.C. Cir.) and Judge M. Blane Michael (4th Cir.).
Click here for more information about Sean.
Judge Allegra Collins received her Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Campbell University Adrian Wiggins School of Law. She is the founder of Allegra Collins Law and was a professor at Campbell Law School.
Judge Collins is the Vice Chair of the N.C. Bar Association's Appellate Practice section and a member of its Appellate Rules Committee. She is a former law clerk to the Honorable Judge Linda Stephens on the N.C. Court of Appeals and a former assistant appellate reporter at the Supreme Court of North Carolina.
Click here for more information about Judge Collins.
Judge Richard D. Dietz grew up in a small Pennsylvania Dutch family with roots in the mountains of north central Pennsylvania. He is a Lutheran. He comes from a family of railroad and telephone workers and was the first in his family to attend college.
Before joining the Court, Judge Dietz was a partner on the Appellate & Supreme Court team at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP, a 650-lawyer international law firm with its roots in North Carolina.
In his legal practice, Judge Dietz argued in the U.S. Supreme Court in Abramski v. United States, 134 S.Ct. 2259 (2014), and handled dozens of appeals in other state and federal courts around the country. He argued cases in a wide range of legal areas, including constitutional law, complex business law, criminal law, family law, and tort law. He has also represented a broad array of clients, from Fortune 500 companies to low-income families and indigent criminal defendants.
Judge Dietz is a North Carolina board certified specialist in Appellate Practice. He previously served as a vice president of the North Carolina Bar Association, as vice chair of the Appellate Practice Section and on the Appellate Practice Section Council. He has also served for more than ten years on the Bar Association's Appellate Rules Committee, a group of lawyers and judges who review the state's appellate rules and draft proposed changes.
Judge Dietz has served on a number of court-related boards and commissions, including the North Carolina Courts Commission, a group of judges, lawyers, legislators, and private citizens who study and recommend changes to the court system. He currently serves on the North Carolina Equal Access to Justice Commission and chaired the Commission's strategic planning committee.
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James W. "Jim" Doggett is Deputy Solicitor General at the North Carolina Department of Justice, where he represents the State of North Carolina, its agencies, and its officials in civil appeals. He has argued cases before the North Carolina Supreme Court, the North Carolina Court of Appeals, and multiple federal courts of appeals, including the en banc U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
Jim earned his B.A., with honors and highest distinction, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a member of the Order of the Golden Fleece. He earned his J.D. from Columbia Law School, where he was a Kent Scholar, a Stone Scholar, and a notes editor on the Columbia Law Review.
After law school, Jim clerked for the Honorable Fortunato P. Benavides on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and practiced law in New York City at Cleary Gottlieb Stein & Hamilton LLP. The North Carolina Supreme Court cited his student note in its landmark decision that held that parties in North Carolina's state courts need not satisfy federal standing requirements.
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Jonathan Y. Ellis is a partner at McGuireWoods in Raleigh and Washington D.C. He is a co-chair of the firm's Appeals and Issues Team and a member of the firm's Complex Commercial Litigation Department. He focuses his practice on briefing and arguing appeals and dispositive motions, as well as counseling clients on complex legal issues. Jonathan has argued nine cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and has also handled appeals and dispositive motions in other federal courts and state courts across the country. Jonathan has significant experience nationally in assisting clients in formulating appellate strategy both in pending appeals and at the trial court level before judgment.
Before joining McGuireWoods, Jonathan served in the Office of the Solicitor General in the U.S. Department of Justice as an Assistant to the Solicitor General. During his tenure, Jonathan briefed and argued Supreme Court cases involving patent and copyright law, constitutional law, administrative law, ERISA, international arbitration, telecommunications, securities regulation, and other areas of federal law. His arguments include Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid, Thryv, Inc. v. Click-to-Call Technologies, LP, and Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com, LLC.
Jonathan graduated first in his class from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and has served as a lecturer at the school. After graduation, Jonathan served as a law clerk to John G. Roberts, Jr., Chief Justice of the United States, and to Judge A. Raymond Randolph of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He also previously served as a Bristow Fellow in the Office of the Solicitor General. He holds a bachelor's degree in computer science from North Carolina State University.
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Judge Fred Gore grew up in Supply, NC. After high school he joined the North Carolina National Guard as an infantry soldier. He completed basic and advanced individual training at Fort Benning, Ga., before leaving for college.
Judge Gore attended the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he majored in Business with a concentration in Marketing and obtained his B.S.B.A. in 1998. Judge Gore worked in the business world for several years with companies like Nike before going back to law school. He was admitted to Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, Va., and graduated with his Juris Doctorate. In Law School Judge Gore excelled as a well-rounded student and member of his community while completing over 300 hours of community service and he was also selected to Who's Who of American Law Students in 2003 and 2004.
In 2012 Judge Gore rejoined the District Attorney's office. In 2014, while serving as a prosecutor, Judge Gore was elected to the District Court Bench and served Bladen, Brunswick and Columbus Counties as District Court Judge. He obtained his Certification as Juvenile Court Judge and served as the primary juvenile judge for the district until 2020. Judge Gore was elected to the North Carolina Court of Appeals in 2020 and started his eight-year term in 2021.
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Robert E. "Rob" Harrington is a member of Robinson Bradshaw & Hinson PA in Charlotte. He litigates complex business disputes. He represents corporate clients in a broad range of contracts, trade practice and other business matters.
Rob has served as lead counsel in cases in various jurisdictions, including the North Carolina Business Court and other state and federal courts in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana. He has represented and counseled clients in litigation and business matters across various industries, including financial services, manufacturing, agribusiness, telecommunications, sports and entertainment, health care and education.
Rob co-chairs the firm's Litigation Department. He served as president of the Mecklenburg County Bar, was appointed by the Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court to the North Carolina Commission on the Administration of Law and Justice and served as a member of the board of governors of the North Carolina Bar Association. For his professional work and civic engagement, North Carolina Lawyers Weekly recognized Rob as Lawyer of the Year in 2017 and Business North Carolina included him in its Power lists for 2020-23 and its inaugural Dynamic Diversity list in 2021.
Rob received his B.A., magna cum laude, from Duke University and his J.D., with high honors, from Duke University School of Law.
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Richard E. Hicks PhD is the Executive Director of HRC, the Director of Employee Assistance Programs at HRC, and a North Carolina Licensed Psychologist in Raleigh. His specialties are anxiety, depression and individual psychotherapy. He has provided psychological services to adults, adolescents, and children in a variety of outpatient and inpatient settings since 1998. He currently serves on the Board of the North Carolina Psychological Association.
Dr. Hicks is passionate about translating knowledge from psychology, neuroscience, and medicine into practical and supportive strategies for health, fulfillment, and personal success. He sees adults, couples, and adolescents. His clinical work draws from a variety of traditions, including cognitive behavioral and mindfulness therapies.
Dr. Hicks earned his undergraduate degrees in Psychology and Electrical Engineering from North Carolina State University and his Masters and Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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Mark A. Hiller is a shareholder and commercial litigator at Robinson Bradshaw in Chapel Hill. He helps clients navigate their complex disputes at all stages, from pre-litigation through appeals. He has represented clients in high-stakes disputes in a range of industries, including health care, manufacturing, telecommunications, banking and government contracting.
Mark's experience includes representing or advising clients on significant matters involving class actions, business and contract disputes, intellectual property, trade secret disputes, cybersecurity and the False Claims Act. He also has represented clients in government investigations.
Mark is also active in the legal community, where he has been appointed a member of the NCBA Appellate Section Council.
Before joining Robinson Bradshaw, Mark served as a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and practiced law at a litigation boutique in Washington, D.C.
Mark earned his A.B., magna cum laude, in Political Science and Government from Harvard University and his J.D. from University of Virginia School of Law.
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Judge Lucy N. Inman is a Senior Counsel with Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman PLLC in Raleigh. She brings to Milberg wide ranging experience in civil litigation and more than a dozen years serving North Carolina as a trial and appellate judge. She focuses on the firm's appellate work.
From 2010 through 2014, Judge Inman served as a Superior Court judge in North Carolina, presiding in communities large and small. Of the thousands of rulings, she made in trials and hearings, seven were reversed on appeal. She won statewide election to the North Carolina Court of Appeals and served there from 2015 through 2022, authoring more than 450 appellate opinions, including decisions on issues of first impression in constitutional, criminal, civil, and administrative law. Fewer than three percent of her appellate opinions were reversed.
Judge Inman serves on the Judicial Independence Committee of the National Association of Women Judges. She has served in leadership roles in the North Carolina Bar Association and the North Carolina Association of Women Attorneys.
Judge Inman earned her J.D., with honors, from The University of North Carolina School of Law at Chapel Hill, where she served as an article's editor for The North Carolina Law Review. She clerked for Chief Justice Exum of the North Carolina Supreme Court and practiced civil litigation for 18 years, first in Los Angeles, then in Raleigh. Her first jury trial was covered gavel-to-gavel on Court TV. She has represented businesses, celebrities, death row inmates, and survivors of negligence, fraud, and sexual abuse,
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John J. Korzen is the Director of the Appellate Advocacy Clinic and an Associate Professor of Legal Writing at Wake Forest University School of Law in Winston-Salem. He joined the Wake Forest law faculty in 2003 and revived the school’s appellate clinic in 2006. Since 2007, he has supervised more than 50 oral arguments by 3Ls in various appellate courts and coached scores of students in moot court competitions.
John is certified by the North Carolina State Bar Board of Legal Specialization as a specialist in Appellate Practice. He has argued appeals in the Supreme Court of the United States, Fourth Circuit, Eleventh Circuit, Supreme Court of North Carolina, and the Court of Appeals of North Carolina. He has supervised the work of third-year law students in all of those appellate courts and others.
Before joining the faculty in 2003, John practiced law for a total of eleven years, with Smith Helms Mulliss & Moore in Greensboro, and Anderson Korzen & Associates in Kernersville. He previously served as a law clerk for the late Sam J. Ervin, III, then Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Before attending law school,
John taught grades 4 through 7 in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School System for six years.
John earned his B.A. from Wake Forest University and his J.D. from Wake Forest University School of Law.
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Matthew N. "Matt" Leerberg is a partner with Fox Rothschild LLP in Raleigh. He is a member of the firm's Executive Committee and Co-Chair of the Appellate Practice Group. He focuses his practice on helping businesses navigate state and federal litigation and appeals. He leads Fox's national appellate team, which serves clients before the U.S. Supreme Court, every federal circuit court in the country and more than 20 state appellate courts.
Widely recognized for his work as a litigator and strategist, Matt is often hired to handle appeals in cases that met with unfavorable results in the lower courts. He centers his practice on helping businesses navigate complex state and federal litigation and appeals, including bet-the-company and other high-stakes litigation.
Along with his Fox colleague Beth Scherer, Matt authors the comprehensive treatise North Carolina Appellate Practice and Procedure, published by LexisNexis, © 2022, 2019. Matt enjoys thinking through appellate strategy issues and is always happy to chat.
Matt is a member of the North Carolina, Wake County and Federal Bar Associations, North Carolina Business Court the Defense Research Institute.
Matt earned his B.A., magna cum laude, from Harvard University and his J.D., with high honors, from Duke University School of Law.
Matt is a founder and regular writer for the North Carolina Appellate Practice Blog, which provides news, information, tips and resources for practicing law in North Carolina's state and federal appellate courts.
Click here for more information about Matt.
Timothy P. Lendino is Corporate Counsel at Compass Group, a global foodservice company with its U.S. headquarters in Charlotte, NC. In that role, Tim supports the procurement operations of the company, which involves vendor contracting, commercial dispute/litigation management, antitrust compliance, and other corporate compliance matters.
Prior to joining Compass Group, Tim was a commercial litigator at Bradley and Smith Moore Leatherwood. As a commercial litigator, Tim was particularly focused on practicing in the North Carolina Business Court, and he served as a vice-chair for that Court's rules committee and clerked for the Honorable John R. Jolly, Jr.
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Michelle A. Liguori is a partner at Ellis & Winters LLP in Raleigh, where she focuses her practice on appeals, class actions, and section 1983 litigation. Her appellate practice spans the broad array of subject matters litigated by Ellis & Winters, including complex commercial disputes, class actions, medical malpractice, land use, and estate litigation. In addition to handling cases on appeal, she advises on matters of appellate strategy while cases are proceeding in trial court. She also represents criminal defendants as appointed counsel in the North Carolina appellate courts and the Fourth Circuit.
Michelle is a founding member of Best in Class, Ellis & Winters's class action blog, and she regularly writes and edits articles for the blog.
Before joining Ellis & Winters in 2018, Michelle spent three years helping federal judges decide appeals as a staff attorney and law clerk at the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. She later worked for the Solicitor General's Office at the North Carolina Department of Justice, handling civil and criminal appeals in the state and federal appellate courts. At Ellis & Winters, Michelle has worked on numerous appeals that have arisen in civil litigation matters, and she represents criminal defendants in the North Carolina appellate courts as a member of the Office of the Appellate Defender's Criminal Appellate Roster. Michelle is also on the Criminal Justice Act Appointments list for the Eleventh Circuit.
In addition to her law practice, Michelle serves the next generation of lawyers as an adjunct professor at Duke Law School, where she has taught legal writing to international L.L.M. students, and scholarly writing to J.D. students. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Harvard Club of the Research Triangle.
Michelle earner her B.A. from Amherst College and her J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School.
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Sripriya Narasimhan serves as Deputy General Counsel to North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein. In that role, she manages the Department's high-stakes litigation and offers strategic counseling on matters at both the trial and appellate level in state and federal courts. In addition, Narasimhan manages crises and advises the AG on his strategic and policy goals and substantive legal positions.
Narasimhan's work focuses on constitutional law and civil rights matters, with a special focus in the areas of the separation of powers and executive power, voting rights, reproductive justice, gender discrimination, economic justice, and immigration. Additionally, she leads and works with multistate coalitions on civil-rights issues.
Narasimhan previously served as Associate General Counsel at the U.S. Department of Transportation, where she counseled the Secretary on the Department's regulatory programs and litigation and enforcement. Before that, she practiced trial and appellate law at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in New York and Washington D.C., and was a member of the adjunct faculty at the George Washington University Law School.
Click here for more information about Sripriya.
Judge Allison J. Rushing serves on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Before joining the bench, Judge Rushing practiced law as a partner at Williams & Connolly LLP, where her practice focused on appeals and Supreme Court litigation.
Throughout her career in private practice, Judge Rushing was consistently recognized among Super Lawyer's "Rising Stars" and by The National Law Journal's "Appellate Hot List." Legal 500 praised her "excellent writing advocacy skills," and she was annually recognized for her commitment to pro bono representation.
Judge Rushing is a native of Hendersonville, North Carolina. She graduated summa cum laude from Wake Forest University and magna cum laude from Duke University School of Law, where she was Executive Editor of the Duke Law Journal and a member of the Moot Court Board.
After law school, Judge Rushing clerked for then-Judge Neil Gorsuch of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, Judge David Sentelle of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and Justice Clarence Thomas of the United States Supreme Court.
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Elizabeth B. "Beth" Scherer is of counsel with Fox Rothschild LLP in Raleigh. She is a Board Certified Specialist in Appellate Practice who for 15 years has devoted her entire practice to federal and state appeals. She has briefed and argued cases in both the North Carolina appellate courts and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. She has also represented clients before the Supreme Court of the United States.
Beth recently co-authored Lexis' North Carolina Appellate Practice and Procedure treatise (©2019) with her Fox Rothschild colleague, Matt Leerberg. She is also a founding member and regular contributor to the North Carolina Appellate Practice Blog, a leading resource on North Carolina appellate practice and procedure.
Additionally, Beth assists and counsels attorneys throughout North Carolina in preparing their appeals, complying with rules of appellate procedure and correcting appellate rules violations.
Beth is a member and past chair of the North Carolina Bar Association's Appellate Rules Committee, which recommends changes to the North Carolina Rules of Appellate Procedure to the Supreme Court, publishes appellate advocacy practice guides and seeks to improve the quality of appellate advocacy in North Carolina.
Beth earned her A.S. from Gainesville College, her B.S., summa cum laude, from University of Georgia and her J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Georgia School of Law.
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Erik R. Zimmerman is a shareholder with Robinson Bradshaw in Research Triangle Park. His principal areas are antitrust and competition, appeals, class actions, education, litigation, intellectual property and technology. He guides clients through complex litigation and appeals. He has helped companies, universities and individuals navigate antitrust suits, class actions, constitutional cases and other high stakes disputes in courts across the country.
Erik has particular experience in appellate litigation. He often joins cases for the first time on appeal and helps his clients overturn unfavorable rulings from the lower courts. He has argued appeals in the Fourth Circuit and the North Carolina appellate courts. He has also filed numerous briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court and appellate courts nationwide.
Erik co-chairs the firm's Appeals Practice Group and serves on the North Carolina Bar Association’s Appellate Rules Committee and Appellate Practice Section Council.
Erik earned his B.A., summa cum laude from Harvard College and his J.D., with distinction, from Stanford University.
Click here for more information about Erik.