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Appellate Practice Section

The Appellate Section of the MSBA is active in educating appellate practitioners, offering opportunities for those practitioners to connect with the bench, and providing pro bono training and opportunities in the appellate arena.  A list of the Officers and Council Members is available under the tab “About Section” at the top of this page.

Currently, the Appellate Section’s primary activities are:

• Quarterly Appellate Lunches.  The Section plans a series of four lunchtime CLEs per year, all of which take place at the Minnesota Judicial Center.  The series is designed to offer an informal chance for the appellate bench and bar to learn about new developments in the law and to connect with each other.  You can find out more about upcoming CLEs by using the tab “Meetings/CLEs” at the top of this page.
• Appellate Practice Institute.  The Section plans this full-day CLE each year (taking place March 2, 2012) to offer both appellate fundamentals to those who finds themselves infrequently on appeal, as well as nuanced pointers for the most seasoned appellate advocates.
• Networking and Connecting.  The Section partners with the Minnesota Supreme Court Historical Society to organize reunions for state level appellate law clerks, alternating between Court of Appeals and Supreme Court clerks every other year.  The Section also hosts an annual dinner for all members of the section in May.
• Pro Bono Opportunities.  In the last few years, the Section has expanded its efforts to connect appellate lawyers with pro bono opportunities and train them in those substantive areas of law.  Currently, those opportunities fall primarily in four substantive areas:
• Criminal Appeals.  The Section, in coordination with the Office of the Minnesota Appellate Public Defender, has instituted a pilot program that enables attorneys from six law firms to handle felony criminal appeals on behalf of the appellate public defender.   The program provides civil attorneys with opportunities for appellate brief-writing and oral argument before the Minnesota Court of Appeals and /or Minnesota Supreme Court.  The Section intends to expand the program to other section members and law firms and offer training sessions once the pilot stage is complete.
• Asylum.  The Section sponsored a training by The Advocates For Human Rights on asylum appeals in September of 2011.
• Unemployment compensation.  The Section hosts trainings regarding handling unemployment compensation cases and helps link practitioners to pro bono cases.
• This year, the Section is also developing a pilot program to handle misdemeanor appeals.
• Share Expertise.  Each February, our section hosts an event where appellate judges educate practitioners about the most significant decisions of the previous year.  Our section provides appellate lawyers to accompany appellate judges and help explain new appellate decisions during the MSBA’s “Nine Days in June” programming.  Our Section also responds to queries from the Minnesota Court of Appeals and Supreme Court about our perspective on potential rule or policy changes.

- Last Updated 10/26/2012 -