TWO UPCOMING APPELLATE SUMMITS

 

[Posted September 16, 2015] Do you need MCLE credit? Want some top-drawer training in appellate advocacy? Rejoice, for I bear good news that will bring great joy to the appellate community.

On September 30 in Richmond, the third Virginia Appellate Summit will convene at Troutman Sanders’s office on Brown’s Island in Richmond. The Virginia Bar Association graciously provides logistical support, and the price simply blows away the competition: $125 for 6½ MCLE hours of high-level appellate training. (It’s $175 if you’re not a member of the VBA’s Appellate Practice Section. Membership in that section is just $25. Do the math and join the section.) You’ll hang out for a full day with the state’s top appellate lawyers and a host of appellate jurists from the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals of Virginia and the Fourth Circuit.

Here’s a link to the VBA webpage that describes the event; you can sign up online here.

I’ve reported before about the ABA’s Appellate Summit, which every third year or so returns to Washington, DC. This is one of those years; the summit will take place from November 12 through 15 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel. There’s plenty to do the whole weekend, and you can book an entire year’s MCLE requirement, plus grab a few hours to carry over to 2017. It’s decidedly pricier at $695 (there are discounts for judges, appellate staff attorneys, professors, military lawyers, law students, and ABA members), but you get plenty for that price.

What, you doubt me? How about a Thursday night reception at the Supreme Court of the United States? With one or more of the Robes mingling in the crowd? That reception is included in the price of the summit. I got to meet Justice Thomas a few years ago, and a few years ago I heard a private chat to the assembly from Chief Justice Rehnquist. My favorite social component is the Friday night dine-around, where you pick a restaurant, sign up, and then find out when you get there who you’ll meet.

This program is attended by appellate jurists and lawyers from around the nation. The last time it was in Washington, I was astonished to learn that other than some military lawyers attached to the Pentagon, I was the only Virginia lawyer at the program. Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen again; you can get details and sign up here.

I’ll be at both programs, each of which gets my outstanding rating for program quality. I hope to see plenty of you there.