Principles of Appellate Advocacy

Written by acclaimed appellate lawyer and professor Daniel Selmi, Principles of Appellate Advocacy concentrates exclusively on a few rules and principles that are essential to writing clear appellate briefs and oral arguments. Designed for students preparing their first appellate arguments, as well as those who struggle with the writing process, this concise, student-friendly text helps students identify core principles at issue, frame their arguments from an appellate judge’s perspective, and write clear, compelling briefs and oral arguments.

Features:

• Written by a highly experienced appellate lawyer who has briefed more than 35 appellate cases involving environmental and land use law, and argued over 20 of those in the appellate courts, including three in the California Supreme Court.
• Focuses on the core skills in appellate advocacy: brief writing and oral argument.
• Concise treatment that focuses on a few essential rules, allowing students to focus on core principles.
• Teaches students how to derive, rather than just state, essential principles . Emphasis is on helping students learn to identify the issue that must be resolved before developing a written or oral argument that responds to that issue.
• “Thinking like a judge” is a unifying theme – students are consistently challenged to put themselves in the appellate judge’s shoes throughout the text.
• Separates the writing process from the analytic process, guiding students through the dual process of writing a brief while confronting difficult questions about the substance of the law by first creating an outline and then going on to the actual writing.