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Formidable 7th Circuit Judge Richard Posner recently published in the winter edition of the legal journal "Green Bag" the delightfully readable first installment of a two-part article: What is Obviously Wrong With the Federal Judiciary, Yet Eminently Curable.

Appellate briefs. The bane of some lawyers, the boon of others, including me.

Confidential information. We know it when we see it, but we don’t always know what to do with it, especially when it’s an integral part of our client’s case.

An amicus curiae, or “friend of the court,” lives in a kind of appellate limbo.

In my most recent column’s discussion of ghostwriting, my personal recommendation was in favor of counsel’s disclosure of an attorney’s brief-drafting for unrepresented parties. That recommendation remains unchanged.

When an opposing party is pro se, I gird myself for his briefs. They’re typically long, disorganized, wandering and overwrought.

Drafting a Statement of the Issues is not my favorite part of preparing a Wisconsin Court of Appeals brief or any brief, for that matter.

Even when a brief technically conforms to the Court of Appeals’ briefing rules, unwary counsel still can be sandbagged by the decisional briefing rules.

I admit it. When I’m drafting a Wisconsin Court of Appeals brief, all I think about is substance.

Every legal specialty has its outliers -- those remedies or procedures that, because they are rarely available or appropriate, tend to shrink from the mind.

Your client just got socked with a big money judgment.

This column’s main mantra for appeals is to appeal from any decision, order or judgment which could reasonably be construed as “appealable.”


It sounds so simple: If a judgment or order “disposes of the entire matter in litigation as to one or more of the parties” and is properly entered or recorded (Sec. 808.03(1), Stats.), it is “final,” and the appeal time starts ticking.

Your client is being sued under a new or obscure Wisconsin statute, which has not been discussed in any reported or unreported cases. The statute contains no statement of its purpose, and its language could be read both to include and exclude your client.

I once was charged with opposing a summary judgment motion in a multi-claim, multi-issue case. The movant’s brief, close to 35 pages, was accompanied by a motion to allow the filing of an overly long brief (to which we did not object). I prepared and filed my brief, which fell within the county’s local rules (but not by much).

Weighing the decision to appeal an adverse decision from the Court of Appeals is a lot like any decision these days involving money: Is it really worth it?

I was having a nice conversation with another attorney the other day when we began talking about environmental law.Your years-old case is finally coming to trial. You've got documents to review, witnesses to prep, exhibits to mark, and opening arguments to prepare. The hours grow longer, as the days before trial grow shorter.

Most of the motions practitioners bring or defend are researched through traditional Wisconsin law resources -- Wisconsin digests, key numbers, statutes, administrative laws and cases.

This isn’t a “how to” article, at least not directly. It has no specific tips for concise sentences or argumentative brief headings. That alone will make some readers very happy.

Most disputes resolve without litigation. Of the few that make it to court, most settle before trial. Of those few that reach judgment, only a small number are appealed. For many attorneys, then, preparing an appellate brief is a rare, if not alien, event.

You've got a thorny legal issue for which there is no published Wisconsin appellate decision. Or, you've got a relatively simple legal issue, but a unique set of facts which no published Wisconsin appellate decision has addressed.

We’ve all experienced it: You receive a motion, you begin to read its supporting brief, and the words slap your eyes: “spurious,” “not worthy of belief,” “incredible,” “utterly without foundation,” “wholesale abdication.” And that’s just the first page. Many lawyers believe that a brief must contain extremely aggressive language to be convincing to the court. It is true that a ...

Diane Slomowitz is a shareholder with the law firm of Fox, O’Neill & Shannon, SC in Milwaukee. She concentrates her practice on legal research, legal writing and appellate brief writing for the firm’s business and individual clients. Diane can be reached at 414-273-3939 or [email protected]