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!