I have just the best friends. Last week, a few friends hosted a LAW MAN book party for me at WilmerHale in Washington DC. The event was hosted by WilmerHale Attorneys Seth Waxman and Noah Levine, UW Law Professor (and my ConLaw teacher) Ronald Collins, Davis & Wright Attorney Robert Corn-Revere, and my good [...]
There are a number of story lines running through my memoir, LAW MAN: criminal justice, love, faith, redemption, and family. But one of the other major story lines, and quite honestly the hook that got the book published, is my story about the Supreme Court. For those of you unfamiliar with how I became acquainted [...]
As I explained last year, there may be no more daunting task in all Supreme Court practice than distilling a 9,000-word—or hopefully less—cert petition down to one or two Questions Presented. Although crafting QP’s are difficult, you can improve your QP’s by combining a few of the following techniques with lots of [...]
Sometimes the Supreme Court reaches out to decide issues not raised in the petition for certiorari. It is a rare occurrence. But it happened in Turner v. Rogers, No. 10-10. If you weren’t following the case, here are the facts: Michael D. Turner racked up large debts owed to his child’s mother [...]
On Wednesday, Annie and I visited the Supreme Court. Although I have studied, filed briefs in, written about, and generally gushed over the Court for eleven years, it was my first visit to the place that has enormously impacted my life. I was kind of nervous that the Court could not possibly [...]
It was kind of a quiet week here at the CockleBur–most likely because it has been a largely quiet week in the legal world. So I wanted to just throw out some things I have been thinking about. Next week is a huge week for me. My wife and I are traveling [...]
If I had to pick the one section most frequently overlooked by attorneys filing cert petitions, it is what we at Cockle colloquially call the “appendix index.” That section has gained importance because the Supreme Court recently amended their rules to require an index in every brief containing an appendix. In this post, I will [...]
My wife Annie and I had a wonderful trip to Harvard University. We stayed at the famous Preacher’s Suite in Lowell House, and Sandy Alexander of WilmerHale was a gracious host. The following is a recap of our trip. We toured the Cambridge campus on Saturday. I gave a short speech to a group of [...]
My wife Ann Marie and I are traveling to Boston tomorrow for a three-day trip to Harvard University. I have been asked to speak to a group of Harvard faculty and undergrad students, and on Monday, I will be sitting in on a criminal law school class. The trip is exciting for a number of [...]