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General Information

Dates:
Friday, March 9, 2007
Saturday, March 10, 2007

Location:
Bradbury Thompson Alumni Center
Parking: south and west of Bradbury.
Get Directions and Maps

Sponsored by:
Center for Excellence in Advocacy

Registration for the Writing to Win symposium is complimentary. Seating for the symposium is limited. To ensure sufficient accommodations for guests, you must pre-register by phone at (785) 670-1105. When you register, please note special accommodations you may require.

The Art of Advocacy
Writing to Win

Friday, March 9, 2007

The Art of Advocacy:
Knowing Your Audience

Effective advocates understand the needs of their audience and tailor their written arguments accordingly. For policy and institutional reasons, appellate judges and trial judges have different perspectives on the most important features of written advocacy. Judicial law clerks and research attorneys comprise yet another important audience because they play an influential role in judicial decision making. Panelists will offer their unique perspectives on how attorneys can enhance the persuasive value of written advocacy.

Schedule

12:15 p.m. — Registration

Photograph: Bill Rich.12:45 p.m.
Welcome

12:50 p.m.
Opening Remarks

1:00 p.m.
The Winning Brief: What Appellate Judges Expect From Advocates
Appellate brief writing requires a different approach from other forms of legal writing. Litigants at the appellate stage need to be concerned with standards of review and how courts apply them to decide cases. Further, because of the limited nature of oral argument at the appellate level, the quality and persuasiveness of the written brief is of primary importance. Four distinguished panelists representing the United States Courts of Appeal for the Eighth and Tenth Circuits will discuss the features appellate judges expect and value in appellate briefs. The panelists will highlight brief writing techniques and strategies appellate judges find most persuasive, as well as those they discourage.

2:00 p.m. — Break

2:15 p.m.
Keynote Address:
The Winning Writer: Blueprints For Success
No formula can tell you what issues your case will present or complete your research for you, but certain truths about reader expectations can guide both your research and your writing.While the legal and policy arguments that your case presents are unique, certain heuristics can help you to present your arguments more efficiently and effectively. In this presentation, Professor Beazley will discuss blueprints for legal analysis and case descriptions and will give advice on how to make your brief appealing to both readers and users.

2:45 p.m.
Writing To Win At Trial: What Trial Judges Expect In Motions And Trial Briefs
Increasingly, legal disputes are resolved on written pleadings and motions. Trial judges depend upon effective written advocacy to frame the legal issues, marshal the documentary evidence compiled in discovery, and apply the relevant law to undisputed facts. Moreover, trial judges are constrained by time and precedent to a greater extent than appellate judges. In this panel presentation, experienced state and federal trial judges will address techniques of effective written advocacy at the trial court level.

3:45 p.m. — Break

4:00 p.m.
Winning On The Front Line: What Law Clerks And Research Attorneys Expect In Advocacy Writing
Lawyers at both the trial and appellate levels sometimes forget that judges are not the only audience for their written work. Judicial law clerks and research attorneys are often the first to review and evaluate a lawyer's work. Excellent writers themselves, they can be expected to evaluate briefs and memoranda in painstaking detail. This panel brings together law clerks and research attorneys who work for federal and state judges at both the trial and appellate levels. Panelists will discuss what characteristics make legal writing stand out, either for good or ill, and what common mistakes might be avoided in a lawyer's written submissions to the court.

5:00 p.m
Announcements
Professor Michael Kaye

Saturday, March 10, 2007

The Art of Advocacy:
Teaching Persuasive Writing Beyond Classroom Walls

The judiciary depends upon effective written advocacy to meet the demands of increasingly daunting caseloads. Over the last two decades, law schools have responded by investing more resources in legal writing curricula and innovative advocacy skills programs. Learn about the variety of interactive, hands-on learning experiences available to law students who seek to develop expertise in written advocacy, and how those educational efforts serve the judiciary and the legal profession.

Schedule

8:30 a.m. — Registration and Continental Breakfast

8:50 a.m. — Opening Remarks and Introductions

9:00 a.m.
The Value Of Amicus Curiae Briefs As Teaching Tools
Amicus curiae briefs offer nonparties an effective means of influencing judicial policymaking and participating in the development of the law. Also known as "friend of the court" briefs, they highlight important public policy issues and supply useful information to the court that neither adversary may have reason to include in appellate briefs. Panelists will discuss the use of amicus briefs as an effective means of teaching law students how to engage in written advocacy.

9:45 a.m.
The Moot Court Experience: Learning To Write Effective Appellate Briefs
One of the most important benefits law schools provide their students is the opportunity to practice their writing skills in a variety of forms. For many years, Moot Court has allowed students throughout the country to hone their skills of persuasion, both in brief writing and oral advocacy. In this presentation, professors and students discuss how Moot Court participation benefits student writing and produces appellate advocates with practical experience who are ready to hit the ground running in the real world.

10:15 a.m. — Break

The Cutting Edge of Written Advocacy: Developing New Strategies

Effective written advocacy requires flexibility and innovation. Every client has a unique and persuasive story to tell. The persuasive advocate must be willing to learn new-age techniques that most effectively present the client's story. The morning will conclude with presentations that focus on "reteaching" legal writing using persuasive storytelling techniques, writing persuasively in a digital age, and advocating effectively for capital defendants.

Schedule

10:30 a.m.
Reteaching Persuasive Legal Writing By Incorporating Storytelling Techniques
In most litigation, the party with the most compelling story to tell wins the case. This presentation focuses on reteaching creative writing techniques that make legal briefs more persuasive. Professor O'Brien will discuss strategies for finding compelling themes in clients' cases and for effectively communicating them to decision makers.

11:00 a.m.
Hyperlinking To The Future: Electronic Briefing
Explore the potential of technology for use in persuasive legal writing. What skill sets should lawyers, paralegals, and legal secretaries have to hyperlink depositions, cases, and exhibits to legal briefs? What should law schools teach about technology applications in legal writing?

11:30 a.m.
Writing To Win In Matters Of Life And Death
In capital cases, a lawyer's written advocacy may literally make the difference between life and death. However, an important, but too often overlooked, aspect of any effective case presentation is the development and implementation of a writing strategy. The overall "theme" of the case, choices about issue selection and organization, theoretical underpinnings, and even the old adage about "counting to five" are, in varying degrees, all necessary components of writing to win. Lawyers ignore them at their own – and their clients' – peril.

Noon — Luncheon, Bradbury Thompson Alumni Center

12:30 p.m.
Luncheon Speaker
Mary Beth Beazley, Professor and Director of Legal Writing

The Art of Advocacy:
Not-So-Secret Tips for Writing Effective, Persuasive, and Ethical Legal Briefs

Beginning at 1:00 p.m., the final segment of the symposium is a continuing legal education opportunity. Washburn's four full-time legal writing faculty members offer tips for effective and ethical persuasive writing. Washburn University School of Law is one of eight law schools in the nation that has made a long-term commitment to its legal writing program by investing in tenure-track faculty. Washburn Law students benefit from the continuity of experienced instruction offered by professional legal writing faculty members who have devoted their careers to teaching and scholarship in this demanding specialty.

Learn more about Not-So-Secret Tips for Writing Effective, Persuasive, and Ethical Legal Briefs.

Keynote Speaker

Photograph: Mary Beth Beazley.When Mary Beth Beazley arrived at what is now The Ohio State University Michael E. Moritz College of Law in 1988, legal writing accounted for just one half-hour class in one semester. It did not even have a textbook.

Today, things have changed, as the program has expanded into multiple hours over three semesters of a student's tenure at the school.

As program director, Professor Beazley has been a driving force behind that growth, which has placed OSU's law school at the leading edge of national changes in the perception and handling of the field of legal writing.

Moritz's legal writing program earned a top 20 ranking this year among more than 180 legal writing programs in the country in U.S. News and World Report's first-ever rankings for the field.

Before coming to Moritz, Professor Beazley worked as the co-director of Vermont Law School's legal research, writing, and reasoning program and as a research and writing instructor at the University of Toledo. A Chicago native, she grew up in Toledo, earning a bachelor's degree from Bowling Green State University and her law degree from the University of Notre Dame.

She has authored a widely used textbook now in its second edition A Practical Guide to Appellate Advocacy and numerous published articles.

From 1998 to 2000, she served as the president of the Legal Writing Institute. She currently chairs the ABA Communications Skills Committee and serves as editor-in-chief of Legal Writing, the Journal of the Legal Writing Institute. In January 2006, the Legal Writing Institute and the Association of Legal Writing Directors awarded Professor Beazley the Thomas F. Blackwell award in recognition of her outstanding contributions to improve the field of legal writing.

Presentering Professors

Photograph: Aida Alaka.Aïda M. Alaka – Associate Professor of Law
Before joining Washburn Law, Professor Alaka was a lecturer at the University of Kansas, where she taught courses in legal research and writing, race discrimination law, and higher education law. Prior to that, she was a partner at the Chicago law firm of Winston & Strawn, focusing on employment law counseling and litigation. Professor Alaka was also a member of the litigation practice group at Holleb & Coff and was seconded to Sears, Roebuck and Company's corporate law department, where she counseled management on employment-law issues and managed litigation.

During law school, Professor Alaka was editor-in-chief of the Loyola University Law Journal and a staff writer for the Loyola University Consumer Law Reporter.

Photograph: Linda Elrod.Linda D. Henry Elrod – Richard S. Righter Distinguished Professor of Law and Director of the Children and Family Law Center
Professor Elrod is passionate about children's rights, having written extensively on family law issues in local, state, and national forums. She is past chair of the American Bar Association's Family Law Section and was chair of the committee that helped to draft standards for lawyers representing children in abuse and neglect cases. She has served as editor of the Family Law Quarterly since 1992 and vice chair of the Kansas Child Support Advisory Committee since its inception. She was the Reporter for the Uniform Child Abduction Prevention Act.

Photograph: Lyn Goering.J. Lyn Entrikin Goering – Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Legal Analysis, Research, and Writing Program
Before attending law school, Professor Goering was employed as a legislative fiscal analyst for the Kansas Legislature. During law school she was editor-in-chief of the Washburn Law Journal. She later worked as a research attorney for Justice Richard Holmes of the Kansas Supreme Court. Thereafter, she served as administrative assistant to Chief Justice Robert Miller and then to Chief Justice Holmes. She was a law clerk to federal district court Judge Dale Saffels before joining the Topeka law firm of Wright, Henson, Somers, Sebelius, Clark & Baker. She was later an assistant attorney general in the Legal Opinions and Government Counsel Division.

In 1996 she was appointed to the Kansas Board of Tax Appeals, which adjudicates state and local tax disputes. After completing her term, she established a solo law practice in Topeka, focusing primarily on ad valorem tax litigation and appellate practice. She has also worked for Lexis-Nexis as a senior case law editor. She is licensed to practice in Kansas and Colorado and has been admitted to practice before the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Photograph: Jeffrey Jackson.Jeffrey D. Jackson – Associate Professor of Law
Professor Jackson obtained his J.D. from Washburn Law in 1992. He earned a Master of Laws in Constitutional Law, with distinction, from the Georgetown University Law Center in 2003, where he received the Chetwood Prize for the top performance in an LL.M. program. He teaches and writes in areas including Legal Analysis, Research, and Writing, Constitutional Law, and Judicial Selection.

Prior to joining the Washburn Law faculty, Professor Jackson clerked for judges on the Kansas Court of Appeals, the Kansas Supreme Court, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. He was also a litigation associate with the law firm of Bennett & Dillon in Topeka. From 2002 to 2003, he was Staff Attorney to the Kansas Supreme Court on death penalty and constitutional issues.

Photograph: Michael Kaye.Michael Kaye – Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Excellence in Advocacy
Professor Kaye received his undergraduate degree from Case Western Reserve University, his J.D. from Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, and his LL.M. from New York University. Professor Kaye is an experienced public defender. He was in private practice in California and studied at the Comparative Law Institute in Grenoble, France. He was a visiting professor of law at Whittier College School of Law from 1990 to 1991.

Photograph: Tonya Kowalski.Tonya Kowalski – Associate Professor of Law
Professor Kowalski spent several years litigating commercial, domestic, and appellate cases in Oregon and Washington as well as the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She also worked as a legal writing consultant in Florida, Oregon, and Washington.

While attending law school, she was a member of the Duke Law Journal and co-director of the Domestic Violence Advocacy Project. Her affiliations include membership in the Legal Writing Institute; Association of American Law Schools, Sections on Clinical Legal Education and Legal Writing, Reasoning and Research; American Bar Association, International Law Section; Oregon State Bar; and Washington State Bar Association.

Speakers

Photograph: Duane Benton.Duane Benton – Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit
Judge Benton is a 1972 graduate of Northwestern University. He received a law degree from Yale Law School in 1975, distinguishing himself as editor and managing editor of the Yale Law Journal. Judge Benton earned an LL.M. from the University of Virginia School of Law.

From 1975 to 1979, Judge Benton served with the U.S. Navy as a judge advocate. While in the Navy, he attended Memphis State University and earned a master's in business administration and accountancy. He became a certified public accountant in Missouri in 1983.

Judge Benton became a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on July 8, 2004. He was appointed by Chief Justice William Rehnquist to the Budget Committee of the United States Judicial Conference.

Previously, Judge Benton served on the Missouri Supreme Court from 1991 until 2004. On July 1, 1997, the other Judges of the Missouri Supreme Court elected him Chief Justice for a two-year term that ended June 30, 1999.

Judge Benton, a Vietnam veteran, retired from the U.S. Naval Reserve at the rank of Captain, after 30 years of active and reserve service. He is a graduate of the Naval War College.

Photograph: Nancy Caplinger.Nancy L. Caplinger – Judge, Kansas Court of Appeals
Judge Caplinger has practiced law since 1985 and has specialized in appellate writing and appellate advocacy. Until her appointment to the Kansas Court of Appeals in August 2004, she had been an assistant U.S. attorney since 1995, serving as the appellate coordinator since the position was created in 1999.

Caplinger served a three-year term as Kansas attorney representative on the 10th Circuit Advisory Committee and served as secretary of the Kansas Continuing Legal Education Commission. For most of her legal career, Caplinger has served on the Board of Editors of the Kansas Bar Journal. She served as its first chairwoman from 1996 to 1998.

Judge Caplinger graduated from Washburn University School of Law in 1985. She earned her undergraduate degree from Washburn University in 1982.

Photograph: Mary Beck Briscoe.Mary Beck Briscoe – Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit
Judge Briscoe received her juris doctor degree from the University of Kansas and her LL.M. degree from the University of Virginia School of Law. She began her legal career as an attorney-examiner for the Interstate Commerce Commission and subsequently served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Kansas. She was appointed as judge to the Kansas Court of Appeals in March 1984 and was appointed chief judge in September 1990. In May 1995, she was appointed as a judge of the Tenth Circuit.

Neil M. Gorsuch – Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit
Before joining the Tenth Circuit, Judge Gorsuch had served as a deputy associate attorney general at the United States Department of Justice since 2005. From 1995 to 2005, Judge Gorsuch was in private practice with the law firm of Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel. Judge Gorsuch graduated from the Georgetown Preparatory School and received a bachelor's degree from Columbia University, where he won a Truman Scholarship. He earned his law degree from Harvard Law School and doctorate of legal philosophy from Oxford University. Judge Gorsuch clerked for Judge David B. Sentelle on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit from 1991 to 1992, and then for United States Supreme Court Justices Byron White and Anthony Kennedy from 1993 to 1994.

Judge Gorsuch was nominated by President George W. Bush on May 10, 2006, to replace Judge David M. Ebel, who took senior status in 2006. Judge Gorsuch was confirmed by voice vote by the United States Senate on July 20, 2006.

Photograph: Stephen Hill.Stephen D. Hill – Judge, Kansas Court of Appeals
Judge Hill received his undergraduate degree in English and his law degree from the University of Kansas. He started his own firm of Hill & Wisler in 1975 and practiced law in Mound City, Kansas until he became Linn County attorney in 1976. Hill was appointed associate district judge in 1981 by Gov. John Carlin and then district judge in 1982 in the Sixth Judicial District in Kansas. He subsequently became administrative judge and then chief judge of the district until Gov. Kathleen Sebelius appointed him to the Kansas Court of Appeals in 2003.

Judge Hill presided over numerous criminal and civil trials across the state by order of the Supreme Court and was a commissioner on the Kansas Judicial Initiative in 1998. He is a past member of the Kansas District Judges executive committee.

Photograph: Tom Marten.J. Thomas Marten – Judge, United States District Court, District of Kansas
Judge Marten was nominated by President William J. Clinton on Oct. 18, 1995, to a seat vacated by Patrick F. Kelly. He was confirmed by the Senate on Jan. 2, 1996, and was commissioned on Jan. 4, 1996.

He received his bachelor's degree from Washburn University in 1973 and his law degree from Washburn University School of Law in 1976. He began his distinguished career first as a law clerk for Justice Tom Clark, Supreme Court of the United States, in 1976. In 1977, he went into private practice in Omaha, Nebraska. He continued working in private practice in Minneapolis, Minnesota from 1980 to 1981, and then moved to McPherson, Kansas in 1981, where he continued working in private practice until his federal judicial appointment in 1996.

Photograph: Donald Noland.Donald R. Noland – Judge, Crawford County, Kansas District Court
Judge Noland received his bachelor's degree from Pittsburg State University and his law degree from Washburn University School of Law. He began private practice in 1976 and became assistant attorney for Crawford County in 1983. In 1985, he was named Pittsburg municipal judge, a position he held until becoming district court judge in 1991. He is a member of the Crawford County Bar Association, the Kansas District Judges' Association, and the Kansas Bar Association.

Photograph: Sean O'Brien.Sean O'Brien – Associate Professor of Law, University of Missouri at Kansas City
Professor O'Brien has directed various criminal defense clinics at UMKC School of Law and has served as an adjunct professor at Washburn Law. He is a member of the board of directors of the Midwest Innocence Project. In 1989, he was appointed executive director of the Missouri Capital Punishment Resource Center, now the Public Interest Litigation Clinic, where he represents clients in capital trial, appeal, and postconviction cases. In April 2006, Professor O'Brien won the ABA Journal's Ross Essay Contest for his essay, Finding Redemption, which retraces a final conversation he had with Doyle Williams, a death row inmate, during the final hours of Williams' life.

Photograph: Eunice Peters.Eunice C. Peters – Research Attorney to the Honorable Stephen D. Hill, Kansas Court of Appeals
Eunice Peters earned her law degree at Washburn University School of Law in 2006, and her undergraduate degree in kinesiology with an emphasis in athletic training at the University of Illinois in 1997.

Prior to attending law school, Eunice Peters worked at the Champaign County Circuit Clerk's Office, located in Urbana, Illinois, as a senior legal clerk, and at the Kansas Court of Appeals as judicial executive assistant to the Honorable Lee A. Johnson.

During law school, she served on the Washburn Law Journal, and received the John D. Ensley Memorial Writing Award given semi-annually to the student who writes the top memo in the Washburn Law Journal writing competition.

Photograph: Daniel Real.Daniel L. Real – Staff Attorney, Nebraska Court of Appeals
Dan Real is a 1995 graduate, magna cum laude, of Creighton University School of Law, where he served on the Creighton Law Review and the Domestic Moot Court Board and was a member of Phi Delta Phi. He is also 1993 graduate, magna cum laude, of Creighton University School of Business Administration.

He has served as a career judicial staff attorney for the Nebraska Court of Appeals since 1995. He has been teaching in the Legal Writing and Lawyering Skills program at Creighton Law since 1999, and has taught in the non-traditional program since 2002.

Photograph: Janice Russell.Janice D. Russell – Judge, Johnson County, Kansas District Court
Judge Russell received her bachelor's, master's, and law degrees from the University of Kansas. She was a research attorney for Judge Joe H. Swinehart, Kansas Court of Appeals, from 1977 to 1979 and then an assistant district attorney for Johnson County from 1979 to 1981. She then worked as a solo practitioner in general private practice from 1981 to 1985. In August 1985, she was appointed by Governor John Carlin to serve as a Kansas District Court Judge in Johnson County. Since 1995, Judge Russell has served on the PIK Committee, which drafts jury instructions for use by all Kansas judges, and has been active in the Kansans for Simple Justice Coalition since 2005. She is a founding member of Johnson County Business Women, Inc. and an adult member of Boy Scouts of America.

Photograph: J. Stan Sexton.J. Stan Sexton – Partner, Shook, Hardy & Bacon, Kansas City, Missouri
Mr. Sexton has been a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers since 1994. More recently, he was listed in The Best Lawyers in America and Missouri and Kansas Super Lawyers 2006. He is a frequent legal education lecturer, author of articles on trial procedure and trial practice, and teacher of the firm's trial advocacy program courses in Basic Litigation Skills and Advanced Trial Workshop. As technology partner for the firm and its General Litigation Division, Mr. Sexton is responsible for effective and efficient deployment of technology solutions.

David Y. Stevens – Law Clerk to Chief Judge Deanell Reece Tacha, United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit
David Y. Stevens has earned his law degree at the University of Indiana-Bloomington, and his undergraduate degree from the University of Kansas. Prior to law school, David worked as a floor broker at the Chicago Board of Trade, as a business development executive for an educational technology start-up, and in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Photograph: Deanell Reece Tacha.Deanell Reece Tacha – Chief Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit
President Ronald Reagan appointed Judge Tacha to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in December of 1985. Judge Tacha became Chief Judge of the Tenth Circuit on January 1, 2001.

Named a White House Fellow in 1971, she was assigned as special assistant to Secretary of Labor James D. Hodgson. The following year, at the conclusion of her fellowship, she joined the law firm of Hogan and Hartson as an associate in Washington, D.C. Two years later, she returned to Kansas to engage in private practice. In the fall of 1974, she joined the University of Kansas School of Law faculty and in 1981 was elevated to the university position of Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.

Judge Tacha served on the United States Sentencing Commission from 1994 to 1998. She chaired the Judicial Division of the American Bar Association from 1995 to 1996. From 1990 to 1994, and again from 2001 to 2005, she served as chair of the United States Judicial Conference Committee on the Judicial Branch. In the fall of 2006, she was appointed to the Executive Committee of the United States Judicial Conference. Judge Tacha has been a national Trustee of the American Inns of Court Foundation since 2000 and currently serves as the President of that organization.

A native of Scandia, Kansas, she earned her bachelor's degree in American Studies from the University of Kansas and her law degree from the University of Michigan.

Photograph: Rebecca Woodman.Rebecca Woodman – Kansas Appellate Defender's Office
Rebecca E. Woodman is an attorney with the Capital Appellate Defender Office in Topeka, Kansas, and an adjunct professor at Washburn University School of Law. As counsel for the respondent in Kansas v. Marsh, 126 S. Ct. 2516 (2006), Ms. Woodman twice argued the case before the Supreme Court of the United States. She is a 1987 graduate of Washburn Law.