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October 01, 2024 Appellate Judges Conference

AJC Chair's Column

Hon. Christopher McFadden

I’m honored to serve as this year’s Appellate Judges Conference chair. After practicing law for 25 years, mostly as a sole practitioner specializing in appeals, I was elected to the Court of Appeals of Georgia in 2010. In 2014 I was elected to the Executive Committee of the AJC. I’m also a proud charter member of the AJC’s Council of Appellate Lawyers.

This year’s executive committee

Justice Laurie McKinnon of the Montana Supreme Court, who ably served as chair last year, now continues on our executive committee as immediate past chair and now serves as Chair of the Board of the Appellate Judges Education Institute corporation.  Our chair-elect is Judge J. Michelle Childs of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Our vice-chair is Justice Christopher Goff of the Indiana Supreme Court. Our secretary is Justice Luz Elena D. Chapa of the Fourth Court of Appeals of Texas. Our delegate to the House of Delegates is Chief Justice David Thomson of the New Mexico Supreme Court. Our budget officer is Justice George C. James of the South Carolina Supreme Court. 

Our 2024 Appellate Summit chair, Judge Jacqueline Nguyen, of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, will continue to serve on the executive committee this year. Also returning are Justice Briana Zamora of the New Mexico Supreme Court, Justice Robert Torres of the Supreme Court of Guam, Judge Randall Howe of the Arizona Court of Appeals, Division One, and Judge Leanna Weissmann of the Indiana Court of Appeals. New to our executive committee are Judge Allegra Collins of the North Carolina Court of Appeals, who joined us near the end of the 2024-2025 bar year to fill a vacancy, as well as Justice Linda Bell of the Supreme Court of Nevada and Judge Nancy Abudu of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

The chair of our Council of Appellate Staff Attorneys is Jessica Ballard-Barnett, Esq., a law clerk at the Indiana Court of Appeals. The chair of our Council of Appellate Lawyers is Jill Wheaton, Esq., senior counsel of Dykema in its Ann Arbor, Mich., office and co-leader of its appellate team. Our Board of Governors Liaison is Theodore Davis, Esq., a partner at Kilpatrick in its Atlanta office.

Appellate Summit

Judicial members of the Appellate Judges Conference, together with its Council of Appellate Staff Attorneys and Council of Appellate Lawyers, are finishing work on our signature annual Appellate Summit. Formally bearing the name “Appellate Judges Education Institute Summit,” this year’s Summit will be on November 14 to 17 at the Westin Boston Seaport District Hotel.

The Summit is an opportunity for appellate judges, staff attorneys, and practitioners to meet for a four-day seminar featuring programs designed to hone appellate skills as well as programs designed to give our vision a wider view. Speakers will include judges and justices from over a dozen different appellate courts, law professors, and practitioners.

Nuts-and-bolts programs will include:

  • Legal Writing: A Workshop in Practical Linguistics
  • Sua Sponte Decision Making and Supplemental Briefing: Balancing Appellate Judges’ Decisional Discretion and Parties’ Interests
  •  State Involvement in Private Civil Cases
  •  How Appellate Lawyers Can Shape the Record Long Before Appeal
  • Appellate Oral Argument
  • It’s Past Time for Real E-briefing  

Programs designed to broaden our perspectives will include:

  • A presentation by Neal Katyal, former Acting Solicitor General
  • Supreme Court civil and criminal reviews, featuring Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of the University of California Berkeley School of Law
  • Transparency and the Judiciary: Views from the Bench and the Bar
  • Interaction Between Today’s Media and the Judiciary
  • DEI and the Legal Profession
  • John Adams and Thurgood Marshall: Running Against the Wind to Gain Liberty and Justice for All
  • When Justice Fails: Threats to an Independent Judiciary
  • Commemorating the 60th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964: A Reflection on Its Legacy

The Summit is designed to provide opportunities to get to know appellate judges, practitioners, and law professors from around the country. Those opportunities include an opening reception on Thursday evening at the historic John Adams Courthouse, organized tours on Friday afternoon, small-group dinners on Friday evening, roundtable discussions on Saturday morning, and a closing dinner with entertainment on Saturday evening.

Registration is available. We hope to see you there!

Hon. Christopher McFadden

2024-2025 Chair, Appellate Judges Conference

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