Spu #8

Appellate Practice & Procedure

Class #8:

Tips and Strategies for Marketing an

Appellate Practice

presented by

D. Todd Smithhttp://texasappellatelawblog.com

for

Solo Practice University™

Introduction

You’ve decided to pursue appellate practice as a career.

Congratulations!

What are some concrete strategies for successfully

implementing your decision?

Build Your Resume

Law students: If early enough, pursue law review

Seek a position with an appellate justice•Federal circuit, state supreme court, or intermediate court of appeals

•An internship may help you land a paid clerkship

•Judges hire experienced lawyers, too!

Not every successful appellate lawyer has this sort of

experience, but it certainly helps

Develop Reputation & Expertise

Be visible: Let people know what you’re doing

Get to know the courts and judges

Be helpful and forthright

Do good work

If your jurisdiction offers specialization, pursue it

Traditional Marketing Techniques

•Doing “law work” in trial courts

•Handling pro bono cases

•Writing articles and giving speeches

•Bar associations, particularly committee work

•Networking with trial lawyers and judges

•Networking with industry professionals

•Networking with other appellate lawyers

•Advertising: Brochures, newsletters, websites, etc.

Law Work

See Class #2, “How Appellate Lawyers Bring Value at

the Trial Court Level”

For example:•Strategic planning and analysis (legal theories, discovery, experts)

•Motions/responses and briefing (pre-trial, trial, post-trial, etc.)

•Jury charges (drafting, handling charge conference)

•Error preservation (evidentiary issues, post-judgment issues)

But how do you get it?

Pro Bono

Good opportunity to gain experience handling appeals as

lead counsel

Sometimes will get oral argument experience from pro

bono work as well

Helpful to have a mentor to give feedback

Networking

Bar association work•Ready access to other lawyers and judges who are active

•Taking on leadership positions increases visibility and name recognition

Trial lawyers•Often have busy, “fact based” practices and need “law work” help

•Potential for contract work to demonstrate your skill set, build your reputation

•Getting involved early increases chances of working on appeal

Other appellate lawyers•Seek mentoring relationships

•Prospective referrals for conflicts work or overflow

Strategies in the Web 2.0 Age

•Blogs

•Twitter

•Facebook

•LinkedIn

•JD Supra

•Online legal directories (Avvo, Justia, etc.)

Several SPU courses address these topics in great detail

(i.e., Profs. Chartrand, Poll, Merenda, Oginski, and Black). We’ll focus

on the first two.

Blogs

Not your traditional website or online brochure•Published by one lawyer or practice group

•“Educational magazine” covering a niche area of law or a locale

•Directed to regular readers within a target audience

•Content distributed via RSS and e-mail

•Found via search engines (Google) or descriptive domain name

Can be a very effective professional marketing tool•Easy to launch and use

•Inexpensive

•Helps you become recognized as an authority

•Makes it easy for potential clients, referral sources, and media to find you

•“Newsflash: Appellate Judges Read Blogs”

Samples of Appellate Blogs

Sources of Blog Content

• Cases

• Online news

• Info from CLEs

• Info from bar publications or newsletters

• RSS feeds—what others are saying

Posting Frequency

Depends on approach—i.e., “breaking news” or more in-

depth analysis

Balance posting good content regularly with perception

that you don’t have enough “real” work to do

Short posts of a couple of paragraphs, once or twice a

week, is probably sufficient

Twitter

Free service that allows participants to publish brief text

updates—known as tweets—that answer the

question, “What are you doing?”

“Marketing Your Practice in 140 Characters or Less”

(Texas Lawyer approached me about writing this article

after finding me because of my blog. It was re-published

on Law.com.)

Stay Tuned

I will supplement the lectures with posts in the Online

Classroom addressing issues covered in the course.

Contact me on the Group Wire with specific

questions, and I’ll answer and/or post on them.

Thank you!