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.

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.


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.

Diane Slomowitz recently took a meditation class. Not long into it, she realized everyone except her had achieved a meditative state.

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?

When the Wisconsin Supreme Court next year reviews its 2009 rule that allows for citation of unpublished appellate court decisions, there may be minimal evidence to determine the value of the change.

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.