AAAL Appellate Advocate – 2026 Issue 1 | Newsletter of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers
The substantive program opens Friday with The Rise of Clinics, examining the growth of law school appellate practice clinics representing litigants in the Supreme Court and other appellate courts. Panelists include Sarah Schrup, former director of the Northwestern Law School Supreme Court and Appellate Clinic and former Seventh Circuit Executive, and Sarah Konsky, who directs the Jenner & Block Supreme Court and Appellate Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School, as well as former Seventh Circuit Judge John Daniel Tinder and Illinois Assistant Attorney General Samantha Sherman, an appellate practitioner and graduate of the U of C clinic. The panel will be moderated by Academy Fellow Michael Scodro of Mayer Brown.
Upcoming Meeting Preview The Academy convenes in Chicago from Thursday, September 17 through Saturday, September 19, 2026, for a Fall Meeting built around a city that has long been central to American appellate practice and to the Academy’s own history.
Next, Baude and Bray on Litigating Originalism brings Professors William Baude and Samuel L. Bray of the University of Chicago Law School together to discuss the role of originalism and historical practice in modern constitutional litigation, including differing approaches to conducting originalist analysis and what those debates mean for litigants. Academy Fellow Tacy Flint of Sidley Austin moderates. Page 1
AAAL Appellate Advocate – 2026 Issue 1 | Newsletter of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers
Friday’s luncheon features Kenneth Manaster, author of Illinois Justice, a true account of the investigation of an Illinois judicial scandal that, among other things, led to the rise of John Paul Stevens. The afternoon is given over to a tour of the Obama Presidential Center, with buses departing at 1:10 p.m.
Litigation, exploring what in-house counsel who hire and supervise appellate work look for in outside counsel. Panelists are Charlie Dameron, formerly of Latham’s appellate group and now Lead Counsel for Appellate and Strategic Commercial Litigation at Walmart; Chad Pekron, former Head of Litigation at Walmart; Paul Taske, Director of Litigation at NetChoice; and Javaria Neagle, Associate General Counsel for Litigation at United Airlines. Academy Fellow Julian Poon of Gibson Dunn will moderate.
Saturday opens with Women Lawyers at the Podium, a discussion of Seventh Circuit Judge Amy St. Eve’s 2021 report How Unappealing: An Empirical Analysis of the Gender Gap Among Appellate Attorneys. The panel will take up the report’s findings and recommendations, whether the facts have changed in the five years since it issued, and how to sustain progress over the next five years and beyond. Panelists include Northern District of Illinois Judge Georgia Alexakis and Illinois Solicitor General Jane Elinor Notz, with Fellow Tacy Flint again moderating.
Important Dates 2026 Fall Meeting Chicago, Illinois · September 17-19, 2026 Early Registration Deadline August 17, 2026 (rates increase after this date) If a cancellation is received by Monday, August 17, 2026, a refund of 75% of the registration fee will be issued. No refunds for cancellations received after that date. 2027 Spring Meeting: May 13-15, 2027
The program closes with The Role of In-House Counsel in Appellate
Austin, Texas
Page 2
AAAL Appellate Advocate – 2026 Issue 1 | Newsletter of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers
President’s Column
of collective appellate experience. In April 2025, the Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules abandoned the leave-of-court proposal entirely. That is the Academy working as it should. Yet most Fellows learned of it only in passing. This newsletter can change that.
By AAAL President Amy Levin Weil, The Weil Firm, Atlanta, Georgia
You are looking at the first issue of the Appellate Advocate in nearly a decade. I want to begin by thanking both long-time Editor of the original Appellate Advocate, Luther Munford, for coming up with the idea of reviving it, and Interim Editor Dana Livingston for making Luther’s vision come to life. Credit also goes to former Academy President Eric Magnuson, who edited the first issue in 1994.
The Appellate Advocate also matters because of arithmetic. A 2015 survey of the fellowship found that approximately 40 percent of Fellows planned to retire within 5 years. We cannot recruit our way out of this deficit quickly enough. Every Fellow reading this column can do two things before the Chicago meeting: nominate someone to be a Fellow (p. 4) and/or assist the Membership Screening Committee by either joining the committee or volunteering to investigate a nominee.
For more than twenty years this newsletter was how the Academy talked to itself. Its return isn’t purely nostalgia. We need it because the Academy is doing more than it can communicate through meetings alone.
Why be a Fellow? I recommend you read the Emeritus column. In the first of two installments, we share a letter Tom Weaver wrote reflecting on his 25 years in the Academy (p. 5). It is the best argument for this organization— and it’s not about credentials.
In February 2025, the Academy filed comments (p. 8) opposing proposed revisions to Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 29 that would have eliminated the consent option for nongovernmental amici. Those comments were the product of a task force of roughly a dozen Fellows with decades
Thank you for your support of the Academy. I look forward to seeing you in Chicago in September. Page 3
AAAL Appellate Advocate – 2026 Issue 1 | Newsletter of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers
Welcome New Fellows The following were inducted as new Fellows at the Fall 2025 meeting in Washington, D.C.:
Nominate a Fellow
Chicago, IL
Because the Academy is an invitationonly organization, its expansion depends entirely on Fellows nominating and seconding candidates. That work has never been more important. As the Academy’s founding cohort of Fellows retire, the Academy has committed to cultivating diversity in its membership, including diversity of race, gender, sexual orientation and identity, geography, and practice type.
Noel Francisco
Nominate online: https://www.ap-
Matthew Findley Anchorage, AK Tacy Flint
pellateacademy.org/nominate-a-fellow/
Washington, D.C. Eric Fraser Phoenix, AZ William Jay Washington, D.C. Hala Sandridge Tampa, FL Elliot Scheinberg New City, NY Mark Yohalem Los Angeles, CA
What the criteria require. A nominee must have engaged in the substantial practice of appellate law for at least 15 years and earned a reputation of recognized distinction as an appellate lawyer. Time spent as an appellate judge or law clerk may count toward the requirement. What the nomination requires. A nomination by one fellow and a second by another. A fellow may not nominate a partner, shareholder, counsel, or employee of the same firm, agency, or comparable entity. Nominations are confidential. Under the bylaws, all nominations and the ensuing investigation and review are held in confidence, and the nominee is not told that he or she has been nominated.
Page 4
AAAL Appellate Advocate – 2026 Issue 1 | Newsletter of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers
A Word from the Academy’s Emeritus Members
over the country, only two of whom I’d ever heard of. When I received word from the Academy, I thought, “Maybe these are the better facts Judge Russell was talking about.”
Better Facts (Part 1) • By Tom Weaver
T
wenty-six years ago, I was surprised to learn that I had been approved to be a Fellow in the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers. Not surprised because I didn’t think I was qualified, though considering my resting self-confidence level, and because I hadn’t met Mike Rathsack yet, I’d have been doubtful about that. I was surprised because I’d never heard of the Academy and had no idea how those deciding admittance had ever heard of me. I was a 48-yearold attorney with a bunch of appellate experience who’d been at Armstrong Teasdale in St. Louis for 20 years but hadn’t even won a case in the Supreme Court of Missouri. When once I’d mentioned my lack of success to a judge on that court, she’d responded, “Tom, you need better facts.” Now I was being told that maybe I could be part of a relatively small group of distinguished appellate lawyers from all
I checked to see if any Academy fellows were from Missouri and was happy to discover that I knew both of them: Tom Walsh in St. Louis, with whom I’d worked on a few cases, and Dennis Owens in Kansas City, with whom I hadn’t ever worked, though I had heard he’d been on Jeopardy. My insecurities made me wonder why there weren’t more Missouri fellows, but the allure of a professional fellowship, whatever that might mean with this group, was undiminished. After confirming that the firm would pay my annual membership fee, meeting registration fees, and all travel expenses, I registered for my first meeting—in D.C. in January of 2000. What do I have to lose, I asked myself. It turned out nothing, and more to gain than I could have hoped for. My induction dinner, while still intimidating for a Midwest plodder like me, was, well, less formal than those dinners are now. Inductees did not gather in the front of the room in some historically meaningful courthouse, past
Page 5
AAAL Appellate Advocate – 2026 Issue 1 | Newsletter of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers
presidents didn’t make a handshake line, and the great Arthur England’s inspirational induction speech was not part of the evening. There was no ceremony and there were no speeches. In a loud, table-filled dining room, I sat between Academy President Alan Morrison and his wife Anne, who happened to be from St. Louis, allowing us to share stories textured by a common geographical and cultural history. Then the room fell silent when Alan loudly tapped a piece of silverware on a glass, rose, and spoke, in a conversational tone unburdened by formality. “I think we have two new fellows,” he said, looking down at a slip of paper. “Tom Weaver and . . . . . and Thom Brown. Stand up, gentlemen.” Thom and I stood and caught each other’s eye across the room, as the Academy fellows inducted us with their applause. “Congratulations,” Alan said, and sat back down, as the applause faded and the overlapping table-top conversations filled the room again. It was painless, and I was relieved. So I wasn’t expected to stand out in this group, I thought. I was just being offered the chance to be part of something in whatever way mattered to and was fulfilling for me. I could live with that. And that night, brought together
by this shared, low-key baptism, Thom Brown and I began a friendship that lasted two decades, the first of the many Academy friendships with which I have been graced over the last 25 years. Since then, I have gone to as many meetings as the firm would allow me (and pay for), even sometimes attending both in a year. I appreciated traveling to cities I might not have otherwise visited and staying at hotels I likely wouldn’t have enjoyed if someone else hadn’t been paying the bill. And I am sure the programs were interesting and informative and that I learned something from them over the years, and if shown some old programs, I might even remember some of the things we talked about. But that’s not why it became a priority for me to attend Academy meetings, those aren’t the memories that have stayed with me, those aren’t the images and experiences that defined the Academy’s heart and gave it life for me. Instead, things like these kept me coming back. A spring meeting in and my first visit to New Orleans. During Mardi Gras, no less. What were the planners thinking. The first night began with a happy
Page 6
AAAL Appellate Advocate – 2026 Issue 1 | Newsletter of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers
hour in a modestly sized establishment heavy with dark-stained, lacquered molding atmospherically suited for conversations about appellate practice. I entered the crowded room and maneuvered my way to the bar. As I waited for the bartender to return with my beer, Academy President Ken Bass appeared at my side and said, in a firm but soft-edged stage whisper, “Excuse me, sir, but this is a private event, and I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” The bartender paused. But Ken relented after I gave my name and status, the bartender finished his delivery, and I vowed to myself to make more of an impression going forward. Later that night, Jim Martin gave me a private lesson in personal security as we walked through a crowded French Quarter toward the parade on Canal Street. “This place is full of pickpockets,” he warned, “and so always, always keep your hands in your pockets, with one hand on your wallet.” A while later, as if to make his point more emphatically, he unselfishly took one hand out of his pocket to snag one of the
scores of cheap, plastic-beaded necklaces being tossed from passing parade floats. When, after just a moment aloft, his hand returned to his pocket, he announced that his wallet was gone. “See what I mean,” he said, with a wry smile. He graciously concluded the lesson by showing me how to get a temporary license from the nearby makeshift police station, installed for the purpose of handing out licenses for people like him. And, remarkably, he never lost his temper the whole night. I vowed to teach new fellows as Jim had taught me, with selfless abandon. Every presentation by Dan Polsenberg. I don’t remember what any of them were about, but I do remember feeling better for having spent a little time under his spell during those performances. That charisma may also have contributed to my excitement when, at an induction ceremony in Charleston, he told me that he liked my socks. I knew then that I’d never again be asked to leave an Academy happy hour. . . . (To be continued in the next issue of the Appellate Advocate.) This column is drawn from an open letter that Fellow Tom Weaver circulated to the Academy on the occasion of his 25 years of membership. Page 7
AAAL Appellate Advocate – 2026 Issue 1 | Newsletter of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers
Committee Spotlight
On the consent question, the comments argued that a mandatory motion builds in uncertainty about whether a brief will be accepted, discouraging clients and pro bono counsel from investing in briefs that might be rejected for reasons they cannot anticipate. They also identified a timing problem: because an amicus brief is due within seven days after the supported party’s principal brief, an opposing party would not know whether to address an amicus filing that may never be accepted.
Appellate Rules Task Force
Chair: Dana Livingston (TX) Members: A task force of approximately a dozen Fellows who collectively have many decades of experience practicing in appellate courts across the country. Charge: Analyzes and submits official commentary on proposed appellate rule changes. Last year, the Academy submitted comments to the Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure opposing proposed revisions to Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 29. The Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules had said it was “particularly interested” in comment on its proposal to eliminate the option to file an amicus brief on consent.
The comments also pressed a recusal point that cut against the proposal’s own rationale. Because a leave motion would have to explain why the brief meets the rule’s stated purpose, it would necessarily touch the merits and reveal the identity of the proposed amicus and its counsel. A judge ruling on the motion would thus be exposed to precisely the information the proposal was meant to screen out, even if leave were denied.
The Academy’s comments focused on two changes to Rule 29(a)(2): eliminating the consent option for private amici, and new language making briefs that fail newly engrafted requirements “disfavored.” The Academy urged the committee to reject both and instead align Rule 29 with Supreme Court Rule 37, which since January 1, 2023, has allowed amicus filings without a leave motion or the parties’ consent.
Page 8
AAAL Appellate Advocate – 2026 Issue 1 | Newsletter of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers
On the separate proposal to disfavor redundant briefs, the Academy agreed that discouraging unhelpful filings is a commendable goal but objected to converting guidance into requirement, noting that few amici see the principal brief they support before it is filed, and fewer still know what other amici are drafting in the same seven-day window.
Current Committees, Task Forces & Chairs Appellate Rules Task Force · Chair: Dana Livingston — analyzes and submits official commentary on proposed appellate rule changes. Drew Days Diversity in Appellate Practice · Chair: Tillman Breckenridge — works to increase diversity in the appellate bar and bench. The current initiative partners with The Appellate Project (TAP) in supporting law students of color interested in appellate practice.
The Advisory Committee abandoned the leave-of-court requirement and preserved the consent option. Professor Edward Hartnett told the committee that “there is zero support in the bar for that proposal.”
Eisenberg Prize · Chair: Timothy Berg — reviews law journal articles submitted for consideration and makes a recommendation to the Board.
Reporting elsewhere noted that opposition “blurred familiar ideological lines,” and that “lawyers marveled at the strange bedfellows vibe” at the advisory committee’s Valentine’s Day hearing.
Meetings and Programming · Chair: JeanClaude (“J.C.”) André — programs CLE content and speakers for the Spring and Fall Meetings. Membership Screening · Chair: Scott Smith — reviews and investigates the nominations for Fellows that have been submitted. Upon agreement by two-thirds of the Committee, the nomination is forwarded to the Board for approval.
The committee voted 5 to 4 against requiring amici to disclose whether a case’s parties or counsel contributed 25 percent or more of their revenue. It endorsed narrower amendments illuminating ties between amici and parties, including disclosure of majority control and, in many cases, pledges of over $100 to fund an amicus brief.
Publications Committee · Chair: Dana Livingston — puts out the Appellate Advocate. Interested in joining a committee? Email a chair or the Academy’s Executive Director at info@appellateacademy.org.
Page 9
AAAL Appellate Advocate – 2026 Issue 1 | Newsletter of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers
Blast from the Past
(l. to r.) Emeritus member Irene KeyseWalker, Kay Tuveson, and Fellow Jane Webre at the 2022 Fall Meeting in Washington, D.C. Fall Meeting
Fellow & Former Academy President Eric Magnuson and Fellow Katie Wilk at the 2024 Spring Meeting in New Orleans
Fellows & Former Academy President Jim Martin (l.), with Emeritus member Marc Poster and Fellow Margaret Grignon (r.) at the Spring 2023 Meeting in Pasadena
Fellow Jay-Allen Eisen
Page 10
AAAL Appellate Advocate – 2026 Issue 1 | Newsletter of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers
Report on the 2026 Spring Meeting Sessions
U.S. Constitution: Dead or Alive? Panelists: Justice David Nahmias, former Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, Jones Day; Professor Eric J. Segall, Georgia State University College of Law; Professor Alexander Volokh, Emory University School of Law
The program opened on a question the panel’s own title conceded has “long been debated but never answered”: is the Constitution dead or alive?
The Academy met in Atlanta from April 23 to 25, 2026. President Amy Levin Weil and Chief Judge William H. Pryor Jr. of the Eleventh Circuit opened the program on Friday morning. The Atlanta Planning Committee was cochaired by Academy Fellows Laurie Webb Daniel and Jean-Claude (“J.C.”) André, with Marc Ayers, Matt Conigliaro, Harvey Sepler, and Michael B. Terry, and with Amy Levin Weil and Peter Stris serving ex officio. Reports on the five program sessions follow.
The panelists took up the divide between those who believe in a living Constitution and those who adhere to one defined by its original meaning, testing Justice Scalia’s assertion in his McDonald concurrence that an historically focused method is the best means available in an imperfect world for restraining what he called aristocratic judicial Constitution-writing. Each panelist argued for a position, and the exchange between a former state chief justice and two constitutional scholars gave Fellows a useful map of where the interpretive fault lines now run. The consensus, to the extent there was one, landed nearer “something in between” than at either pole.
Page 11
AAAL Appellate Advocate – 2026 Issue 1 | Newsletter of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers
Role of the State Solicitor General Moderator: Jean-Claude (“J.C.”) André, Academy Fellow, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP
Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution
Panelists: Barrett Bowdre, Solicitor General of Alabama; Jeffrey Paul DeSousa, Acting Solicitor General of Florida; Stephen J. Petrany, Solicitor General of Georgia (20212026); Thomas M. Fisher, Academy Fellow, Former Solicitor General of Indiana (20052023)
Four current and former state solicitors general described how the role has changed and what that means for practitioners on the other side. The panel traced the office’s evolution at every stage of state and federal appellate practice, and moved from there to broader trends the panelists have observed in representing state governments on appeal and, increasingly, in the trial courts. The most practically valuable portion for Fellows came last: a candid discussion of what opportunities litigants with cases pending against a state actually have to interface with a solicitor general’s office and to advocate for a particular exercise of litigative discretion.
Speaker: Professor Jonathan Turley, J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law, George Washington University Law School
Professor Jonathan Turley discussed his best-selling work on the foundations and future of the American Republic. Speaking in the 250th anniversary year of the Revolution, he explored the elements that he argues are unique to American democracy and the challenges facing it in the twentyfirst century. The session was scheduled for ninety minutes and used them.
Page 12
AAAL Appellate Advocate – 2026 Issue 1 | Newsletter of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers
Reflections of Women Judges on Eleventh Circuit Practice Moderator: Beverly Pohl, Academy Fellow, Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough Panelists: Hon. Robin S. Rosenbaum and Hon. Nancy G. Abudu, both of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, and Hon. Sarah E. Geraghty, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia
Three judges reflected on practice in the Eleventh Circuit, past and present, drawing on service as members of the court, as judges sitting by designation, as practitioners before the court prior to taking the bench, and as district judges whose decisions the court has reviewed. They spoke to changes observed at the Eleventh Circuit over the years, what distinguishes it from other appellate courts, and what advice they would offer Fellows appearing there. History of Civil Rights in Atlanta Moderator: Richard H. Deane, Jr., former partner, Jones Day; Immediate Past-President, American College of Trial Lawyers Panelists: Jill Savitt, President and CEO, National Center for Civil and Human Rights; Doug Blackmon, Georgia State University, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Slavery by Another Name
The meeting closed with a panel that examined the city’s role at the epicenter of the American civil rights movement and how that history shaped constitutional law, appellate advocacy, and the national understanding of equality and justice. Doug Blackmon took the discussion back before the movement itself, drawing on his Pulitzer Prize-winning Slavery By Another Name and its account of forced labor organized through the criminal justice system in building early 20th-century Atlanta. Jill Savitt brought the institutional perspective of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, and Richard Deane discussed how this history continues to inform modern appellate advocacy and constitutional interpretation. A number of Fellows joined an afternoon tour of the Center.
Page 13
AAAL Appellate Advocate – 2026 Issue 1 | Newsletter of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers
Awards, Honors & Regional News The Eisenberg Prize RECIPIENTS: Professors Lisa A. Tucker & Michael Risch
The Eisenberg Prize recognizes outstanding contributions to appellate litigation or scholarship, and the Eisenberg Prize Committee reviews law journal articles submitted for consideration and recommends a recipient to the Board. The 2024-25 Eisenberg Prize was presented at the Academy’s Fall 2025 Meeting to Professor Lisa A. Tucker, Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law, and Professor Michael Risch, Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law, for Canceling Appellate Precedent, 76 Fla. L. Rev. 175-250 (Jan. 2024). This year’s presentation will be made at the Fellows Dinner in Chicago on Friday, September 18, 2026, alongside
the New Fellows Induction Ceremony. Past recipients include Professor Beth Thornburg (2010), Jennifer Sheppard (2011), Professor Joan Steinman (2013), and Judge Richard Posner (2014). The Kathleen McCree Lewis Award RECIPIENT: Honorable Stephen G. Breyer, former Supreme Court Justice.
The Kathleen McCree Lewis Award for Appellate Justice was created in honor of Academy past president Kathleen McCree Lewis, who died shortly after completing her term as president. The Academy’s Board of Directors wanted to recognize Kathleen’s warmth, elegance, and especially her devotion to appellate justice. The Award honors exceptional contributions to the administration of appellate justice. The 2024 recipient of the Award was the Honorable Stephen G. Breyer, former Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Page 14
AAAL Appellate Advocate – 2026 Issue 1 | Newsletter of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers
Wallace B. Jefferson Installed as President of the American Law Institute
Jefferson served on the Supreme Court of Texas from 2001 to 2013 and was Chief Justice from 2004 until the end of his tenure, making Texas history as the Court’s first African American Justice and Chief Justice. On the bench he led the Court’s efforts to fund access to justice programs, spearheaded juvenile justice reforms, and inaugurated Texas’s first statewide electronic filing system. He also served as president of the Conference of Chief Justices.
Wallace B. Jefferson, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas and eleventh President of the American Law Institute.
Academy Fellow Wallace B. Jefferson, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas and former member of the Academy’s Board of Directors, was installed as President of the American Law Institute at the close of ALI’s 2026 annual meeting in Washington, D.C. He was elected to the role in January 2026 and begins a three-year term as the eleventh President of the Institute, succeeding David F. Levi, former dean of Duke Law School and a former United States district judge, who had led ALI since 2017.
He was elected to ALI in December 2001 and to its Council in May 2011, and served as the Institute’s Treasurer from 2014 to 2023. He continues his appellate practice as Co-Chair of the Texas Supreme Court and State Appellate Practice at Alexander Dubose & Jefferson LLP. Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton, chair of ALI’s Nominating Committee, said he had “long admired his judgment, his generosity of spirit, and his deep respect for the law,” adding that Jefferson “brings both the wisdom and temperament needed to guide the Institute in the years ahead.” ALI Director Diane P. Wood said his “leadership has already left a meaningful mark on ALI.” Jefferson framed his Page 15
AAAL Appellate Advocate – 2026 Issue 1 | Newsletter of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers
own view of the Institute in terms that will resonate with this fellowship: “At a time when the country is divided, ALI is a place where leading judges, lawyers, and scholars come together around a common mission. We can disagree vigorously, but through intellectual debate and compromise, we produce work that is cited in courtrooms, in legislatures, in government offices and in law firms. That is a good model for how Americans can and should be talking to each other.”
Tillman J. Breckenridge Academy Board of Directors Member and formerly with the Washington, D.C. office of Stris & Maher LLP, took office as Solicitor General of Virginia in January 2026. He continues to serve as a Director of the Academy for the 2027 term.
Benjamin G. Shatz Academy Secretary and a partner in the Los Angeles office of Duane Morris LLP, was elected President of the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers, effective May 2026. Founded in 1972, CAAL is the nation’s oldest lawyer organization dedicated to appellate practice; its members are California lawyers elected after rigorous scrutiny of their reputation, character, and appellate advocacy skills. Shatz had served as CAAL’s Vice President for the 2025-2026 year. He is certified as a specialist in Appellate Law by the California Bar, has written the monthly “Exceptionally Appealing” column for the Daily Journal since 2018, and has served as editor-in-chief of California Litigation since 2013. More information is available at calappellate.org.
Page 16
AAAL Appellate Advocate – 2026 Issue 1 | Newsletter of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers
In Case You Missed It The Emergency Docket Comes of Age No feature of Supreme Court practice has changed more in the past decade, or with less procedural scaffolding, than the emergency docket. At the Academy’s Fall 2025 meeting in Washington, D.C., the opening panel took up the growing importance of applications for interim relief, the changes in how the Court has handled them, and the debate over this part of the Court’s work. The panel was moderated by Academy Fellow Melissa Arbus Sherry of Latham & Watkins. The panelists—Brian Fletcher, the Edwin A. Heafey, Jr. Visiting Professor of Law at Stanford and former Principal Deputy Solicitor General under President Biden, and Jeffrey B. Wall, an Academy Fellow and partner at Sullivan & Cromwell who served as Acting Solicitor General and Principal Deputy Solicitor General under President Trump—brought the perspective of advocates who have
litigated interim relief from inside the Solicitor General’s office under different administrations. Stephen I. Vladeck, the Agnes Williams Sesquicentennial Professor of Federal Courts at Georgetown and author of The Shadow Docket, brought the perspective of the practice’s most prominent academic critic. For practitioners, the practical takeaways are less about doctrine than about posture. Applications for interim relief compress briefing, often eliminate oral argument, and frequently produce orders with little or no reasoning, which leaves lower courts and later litigants to infer what was decided and why. Counsel who may need emergency relief should assume a schedule measured in days, should build the equitable record in the district court rather than hoping to construct it on application, and should be prepared for a ruling that resolves the immediate stakes without supplying citable rationale.
Page 17
AAAL Appellate Advocate – 2026 Issue 1 | Newsletter of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers
From the Editor
By Dana Livingston, Interim Editor
Welcome back to The Appellate Advocate, which served the Academy for more than two decades. We’re happy to put it back in your hands. A few notes on what to expect. The publication is digital; it will be distributed as a PDF by email and archived on the Academy’s website alongside the full 1994–2017 run, which remains available and rewards browsing. We are planning two issues a year matching the cadence the newsletter kept for many years. You will find departments you remember and a few that are new. In Case You Missed It and the meeting session reports carry forward. Committee Spotlight revives a promise this newsletter made in the summer of 1996. Blast from the Past draws on the archive. And A Word from the Academy’s Emeritus Members could not have asked for a better first contributor than Tom Weaver’s letter marking his 25 years in the Academy. This issue carries part one; part two follows in the next issue. The Academy is looking for Fellows to serve on its newly formed Publications Committee.
In Memoriam It is with great sadness that the Academy announces that Fellow Dan Krisch tragically passed away on March 18, 2026. Dan was a partner and head of appellate practice at Harris Beach Murtha in its Hartford, Connecticut office. He argued more than 120 appeals, including matters related to multi-million-dollar tort verdicts, commercial itigation, complex divorce cases, zoning and land use matters, serious criminal convictions, election disputes, and issues of constitutional law and fundamental rights. Dan taught moot court and appellate advocacy at the University of Connecticut School of Law, and published a bi-weekly column in the Connecticut Law Tribune. He served as a law clerk for the Honorable Ellen Peters, the former Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court. The Academy would like to express its deepest sympathies to Dan’s family, friends and colleagues.
Page 18
AAAL Appellate Advocate – 2026 Issue 1 | Newsletter of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers
Thank You to the Academy’s Spring Meeting Sponsors!
Page 19
AAAL Appellate Advocate – 2026 Issue 1 | Newsletter of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers
The Academy’s Current Board of Directors President
Amy Levin Weil (GA)
President-Elect
Edward G. Guedes (FL)
Treasurer
Adam H. Charnes (TX)
Secretary
Benjamin Shatz (CA)
Immediate PastPresident
Deanne E. Maynard (DC)
Director · 2026 Term
Marcy G. Glenn (MA)
Director · 2026 Term
Harvey Sepler (FL)
Director · 2027 Term
Tillman Breckenridge (DC)
Director · 2027 Term
Anne M. Voigts (CA)
Director · 2028 Term
Donald Caparella (TN)
Director · 2028 Term
Dana Livingston (TX)
Past Presidents 2025 Deanne E. Maynard (DC) · 2024 Gregory C. Dyekman (WY) · 2023 Warren W. Harris (TX) · 2022 Daniel F. Polsenberg (NV) · 2021 Kevin H. Dubose (TX) · 2020 Howard M. Goodfriend (WA) · 2019 Matthew H. Lembke (AL) · 2018 Diane B. Bratvold (MN) · 2017 Susan M. Freeman (AZ) · 2016 Nancy Winkelman (PA) · 2015 Charles Bird (CA)* · 2014 James C. Martin (PA) · 2013 Roger D. Townsend (TX) · 2012 Wendy Cole Lascher (CA) · 2011 Donald B. Ayer (DC) · 2010 Karen L. Kendall (IL)* · 2009 Timothy J. Berg (AZ) · 2008 Catherine Wright Smith (WA) · 2007 Charles E. Carpenter (SC) · 2006 Kathleen McCree Lewis (MI)* · 2005 David Herr (MN)* · 2004 Michael J. Meehan (AZ) · 2003 Kenneth C. Bass III (DC)* · 2002 Sidney K. Powell (TX) · 2001 Peter W. Davis (CA) · 2000 Alan B. Morrison (DC) · 1999 Eric J. Magnuson (MN) · 1998 Sanford Svetcov (CA)* · 1997 Sylvia Walbolt (FL) · 1996 Luther T. Munford (MS) · 1995 Malcolm Edwards (WA)* · 1994 Mark I. Harrison (AZ)* · 1992-1993 E. Barrett Prettyman Jr. (DC)* · 1990-1991 Arthur J. England Jr. (FL)*
Call for Contributions The Appellate Advocate welcomes short informational pieces on the activities and achievements of Academy fellows as well as longer pieces on appellate practice issues that are likely to be of interest and value to the membership. Please send submissions to any of the officers or directors of the Academy or to Publications Chair, Dana Livingston, email: DLivingston@CokinosLaw.com.
Administrative Office American Academy of Appellate Lawyers 1300 Piccard Drive, Suite LL 14 Rockville, MD 20850 · (240) 404-6498
* deceased
The Appellate Advocate is the newsletter of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers. Comments, suggestions, letters, and articles may be sent to any of the officers or directors of the Academy.
info@appellateacademy.org
www.appellateacademy.org Executive Director : S’Neta Benefield
Page 20