oral argument

Ten things to do in preparation for your 1L oral arguments:

1. Make an outline of your argument, listing out the main issues and the points supporting it.

2. Shepardize all of your cases and your opponent's cases so you can point out which cases are overruled if the other side brings it up.

3. Include in your outline all the possible topics your opponent may bring up.

4. Practice at home in front of the mirror.

5. Business Attire. Learn the meaning of it.

6. Organize your materials in a binder, seperated by index tabs with the cases color-coded by relavance to the issue.

7. Try to learn from your classmates who have already completed their oral arguments.

8. Make sure you have enough material so you can speak for the entire ten minutes, just in case the judges decide not to ask you any questions.

9. Try not to get so nervous.

10. Laugh with your opponent before going into the courtroom.



What happens during the oral arguments:

You completely forget whatever you did above because as the appellee, you're sitting there listening to the appellent's counsel start off with the second issue (the less important issue) and completely skip the first issue altogether.

As you're trying not to look so shocked about her decision, you realize she's done using up her eight minutes and now it's your turn to go up to the podium.

As you start asking for the court's permission to speak, you start your argument by addressing what the appellent just said, while at the same time wondering if you're supposed to bring up the issue she forgot to mention, the issue that takes up 3/4 of your whole argument.

You try to talk for as long as possible on the issue that she raised, but then realize that all that talking amounted to only four minutes and somehow you have to bullshit your way through the remaining six minutes while still wondering if you should bring up the first issue and how would you do it? They didn't teach that in class!

You sit down, hear the opponent's rebuttal and finally start to breathe again.

... ... ...

Appellate Advocacy class for next year, anyone? Hell no, not me. Thank you for your time.