from staff
The Florida Bar and Florida Coastal School of Law are teaming up to present the seventh edition of a seminar called “Successful Appellate Advocacy.” Set for July 30-Aug. 1, the three-day seminar features an all-star panel of appellate judges and top appellate attorneys.
“It’s for anybody handling appeals,” said John Mills, who has a three-attorney, appellate-only firm in Riverside.
Mills said he’s been through the seminar before and serving to help market it this year. He said the seminar is for both young attorneys who may not have filed an appeal yet and veteran attorneys looking to improve the way they handle the written and oral steps within the appeals process. The seminar is geared towards any type of law, from criminal to divorce and this year the seminar deals with an actual case that will go before the Florida Supreme Court after the seminar.
However, as part of the seminar, those who register are required to submit a short brief related to the case before July 7.
“We will not focus on substantive law, but rather procedure,” said Mills, adding the focus is on teaching ways to be more effective and persuasive.
Mills said everyone will go before a three-person panel that will include two judges. During those one-on-one meetings, the briefs will be constructively critiqued and evaluated.
“They will find out what’s good and what could be improved, like their writing style,” said Mills.
After the written briefs have been evaluated, each participant will get to make an oral argument, which will be taped and also evaluated..
“Florida Coastal has done a wonderful job of making their technology available,” said Mills.
The seminar at the FCSL campus on Baypine Road costs $849 for members of the Appellate Section of the Florida Bar and $899 for non-members. Also, the seminar has been submitted to the Florida Bar for 20.5 hours of general CLE credits, including 2/5 hours of ethics credits