Right after I graduated from law school, I had the honor of working as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Margret G. Robb on the Court of Appeals of Indiana. For two years I learned so much about the law, the appellate process, and how judges analyze legal arguments.

When the clerkship ended and I eventually opened my own practice, so much of what I learned in those two years carried over to my appellate work. For the last 15 years, most of my practice has involved appellate advocacy. I have attended continuing legal education on appellate law every year during that time.

But several years ago, I attended my first advanced appellate practice CLE with ICLEF. It was fantastic. The CLE assumes attendees have a certain level of appellate experience, so time is not spent on the basics. Instead, the conference is set up as a roundtable discussion with a panel of discussion leaders. The setting is informal and allows attendees to dive deep into the content, pulling from the topic discussion what they can readily apply to their own practice.

Perhaps the best aspect of the conference, for me, is that it is a mix of experienced criminal and civil appellate attorneys. This provides a great opportunity for a practitioner like me to think outside the box and to be more creative in my own area of practice.

This year I am honored to be one of the discussion leaders at the conference. I will be leading the discussion on interlocutory appeals.

If you have never attended one of these conferences and you are an experienced appellate practitioner, please consider doing so. It doesn’t hurt that it is at such a great venue either! Here is the link for more information and to register.