This is the latest column in our continuing series on real mistakes and misdeeds by real lawyers in cases on appeal.
As this column is about mistakes that lawyers make, it is only appropriate that the author admit his. In the last column, the lead case involved an appellate attorney’s derogatory attacks on the Tennessee panel that ruled against him. That outrageous conduct was described as “rare” and almost unbelievable. In the next three months, three more cases of similar conduct popped up. Apparently, attacks on appellate panels are not that rare, even in written submissions. The author is duly chagrined not to have been more skeptical (and perhaps more cynical).