Do you have the time, focus and skill it takes to successfully write a writ or appellate brief? Perhaps, but there is value in bringing in an appellate specialist familiar with the appellate process. Appellate attorneys are specifically trained and are well-versed in appellate substantive and procedural practice. These skills are especially important in light of often unforgiving judges, who demand substantive and procedural excellence from the attorneys before them. For example, the 5th Circuit recently denied a former Texas cheerleader’s appeal, and strongly criticized her attorneys for grammar and spelling errors. To have a Court of Appeal publically criticize attorney work product in a published opinion leaves little chance for redemption or recovery for the lawyer. Assistance from an appellate specialist is usually the best option for clients whose legal rights and remedies are at stake.
Trial lawyers are among the busiest in the legal field. While many have the skill to write an excellent appellate brief, most do not have the specific training needed to ensure the best results for their clients.
Montage Legal Group’s appellate attorneys can help. Katherine Mayer Mangan (Georgetown Law Center, practiced at Latham & Watkins) and Heather Arambarri (Loyola Law School, formerly Supervising Deputy Attorney General with the California Attorney General’s Office) offer a wide range of services that trial attorneys can tailor to their particular needs. Kate and Heather have practiced extensively in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and in California Court of Appeals/Supreme Court of California, in both civil and criminal matters.
Some examples of appellate assistance Kate and Heather offer are:
1. Writ options during trials, including pre-writ counseling
2. Amicus brief coordination
3. Oral argument coaching/moots
4. Co-counsel or contract arrangements available, at significantly lower rates
5. Credit or co-credit for published opinions
6. Post-Court of Appeal evaluation
7. In-trial assistance, including strategy, objections, offers of proof, and other record preservation issues.
Montage Legal Group’s new freelance appellate specialists may just change the way you and your clients handle appeals. Welcome Kate and Heather!
Kate Mangan
Kate Mangan graduated summa cum laude from Pomona College, and was in the top 1% of her class at Georgetown University Law Center. At Georgetown, Kate was an executive editor of, and was published in, Georgetown Law Journal. After law school, Kate clerked for the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 2004-2005, and was a trial attorney for the United States Department of Justice in the Environmental Enforcement Section from 2005-2006. Kate previously practiced appellate law at Latham & Watkins San Diego office. Kate also founded the Appellate Legal Clinic at the University of San Diego School of Law.
Heather Arambarri
Heather graduated from the University of Southern California, and obtained her J.D. from Loyola Law School. Heather previously practiced appellate law for the California Attorney General’s Office, eventually leading and supervising a specialized team designed to work on writs and appeals. Heather has argued many times before the Second and Fourth Districts of the California Court of Appeal, and the California Supreme Court.
For more information about Montage Legal Group, please see our website at www.montagelegal.com.