The Appellate Record : Texas Appellate Lawyer & Attorney Kendall Gray for Fifth Circuit & Supreme Court Appeals

Hat tip to the ABA Blog for another tale of woe about attorneys who worsened their fate with bad spelling.

A New York judge was concerned that defense counsel lacked the necessary "game" to handle the high profile murder case before the court.

Among the reasons? Facebook comments and bad spelling. According to the ABA Blog:

Firetog scolded the lawyers for complaining about press coverage of the case after giving media interviews and posting comments on Facebook. He even chastised the lawyers for misspelling “canon” in a reference to ethics, the Times says. “Two N’s means a cannon that shoots at something,” he said.

So remember, campers, an ethical canon is what attorneys must obey. An ethical cannon is an artillery piece that obeys the rules of engagement.

The career you save could be your own.

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It's hard to get a moment's rest when you are the "Appellate Record."

Sure, it all looks like glamorous parties and premiers, but it can be a grind, what with all the paparazzi and personal appearances and such.

But here at the Appellate Record, we take it all in stride because it's all about you.

And my latest bit of unsolicited advice for "you" involves a Texas Lawyer article containing my thoughts about board certification:

• Why do it?
• Has it made us any better as a profession?
• And most importantly, how do you prepare for the exam?

That exam is a bear, campers. So check out the article and study hard.

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Suppose you were abducted by aliens.

And before you were probed, they asked you to explain what it is that you do and why. If you are an appellate lawyer, how would you explain your job? Why does your job exist and why can't just any old lawyer just do it?

I had to do something similar last week. They weren't extraterrestrials, and I wasn't probed. But they didn't speak my language and they came from a society that has very little in common with our own.

 Here at Andrews Kurth, we had a visiting delegation of judges from China. And my mission, whether I chose to accept it or not. was to create a presentation on American Appellate Practice--a presentation for translation, one sentence at a time, to an audience that does not speak English or even a language from which English derives.

 After the break, a few deep thoughts about appellate lawyers' Raison d'être--in English.

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I recently posted about an extreme example of what can happen when one fails to adequately edit and proof a brief--including failing to adequately edit for tone and indeed for arguments that ought not be made in an appeal that probably ought not have been taken.

So, if one accepts the proposition that careful editing and proofing are important, that leads to the obvious next question of, "how do you do it?"

Sure, I have my own bag of tricks for how to edit a brief, not only to ferret out the niggles and mistakes, but also to pump up the prose so that the things you ought to say are said in the best way possible.

(Notably, those are not always employed on the blog and mistakes slip through).

But I've very seldom gotten ideas from other folks on their own methods of editing.

So here's the question I'd really like the readers and lurkers to answer in the comments:

What are the steps you go through, the techniques you use or your personal "tricks of the trade" for getting from the full draft to the almost final draft to the filed product?

I'd like to get as many answers as possible for a potential article or series of posts.

Plus, I'd just like to get better at this sort of thing. I'm a GREAT editor of stuff written by someone else. Stuff by me? I could be much better.

And just think: if we can save just one brief from the odd dangling participle or lack of subject/verb agreement, school marms in black robes everywhere will surely lavish us with thanks.

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