Podcast

Matthew Strugar knows something about defending protesters threatened with legal action, even jail — because he used to be one of them. Drawing from his activist background, including defending animal rights, Matt talks about how civil-harassment restraining orders are abused to squash speech rights, though the anti-SLAPP law can still come to the rescue. Matt...Read More >>

Merely hiring a court reporter is not enough. Jimmy Azadian explains how sidebars, missed objections, proffers, and hostile judges can all present obstacles to making your trial record. Jimmy shares with co-hosts Jeff Lewis and Tim Kowal about how he has addressed these kinds of problems while serving as embedded appellate counsel. What is “embedded...Read More >>

Being a victim of discrimination and harassment at the hands of an employer is hard enough, but what happens when your employer is a judge? On episode 39 of the California Appellate Law Podcast, Aliza Shatzman discusses her personal experience and why it was not only personally horrifying, but damaging to her career. Aliza also...Read More >>

H.L. Mencken had it that “democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” In two recent opinions, California courts gave the people what they voted for by enforcing two California voter initiatives: one that is tough on criminal defendants, and another that is...Read More >>

The Co-Founder of Casetext, Pablo Arredondo, explains how legal technology that is available today will allow solos and small firms to compete against Big Law. Tim and Jeff talk with Pablo about: Why Artificial Intelligence—which didn’t work well for a long time—now makes it much, much easier to find the legal authority you’re looking for....Read More >>

When a cadre of appellate nerds began the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers (and Eating and Drinking Association) 50 years ago, the state appellate system was not functioning well. Ben Shatz joins Jeff Lewis and Tim Kowal to talk about the founding of CAAL, where appellate jurists and practitioners could speak frankly about the problems...Read More >>

Jeff and Tim discuss some surprising recent cases, including two cases where the courts allow untimely appeals, and a case where the right to an appellate record via a settled statement was duly requested and rejected in the trial court and with no recourse in the Court of Appeal. And Jeff previews an anti-SLAPP motion brought by...Read More >>

High-profile and celebrity family law attorney Chris Melcher has represented some of the largest divorce cases in California, including multiple cases ending in published appellate decisions. Chris talks with Jeff and Tim about how celebrity-driven cases shape the law, such as the #FreeBritney movement against conservatorship abuse. Chris then talks about a way to bring...Read More >>

Drawing from his experience training federal judges and top law lawyers how to write more effectively, Ross Guberman shares some of his best writing tips with Jeff and Tim on episode 33 of the California Appellate Law Podcast at www.CALPodcast.com. Ross also gives a tour of his latest product, BriefCatch 3.0 (now available on Mac),...Read More >>

Certified appellate specialist and mediator John Derrick talks to Jeff and Tim about mediating cases on appeal. John explains that some appellate courts have mediation programs because of a mission to promote settlement. But the courts’ job is to decide cases. John discusses the conflict between these two roles, including a story about an appellate...Read More >>

After Jeff quizzes Tim on a bit of appellate esoterica about the automatic 15-day default extension for appellate briefs, the co-hosts discuss whether appellate justices modulate their approaches to sympathetic cases. The conversation also covers recent cases involving: Defective notices of appeal. Can an action be dismissed pending appeal? A surprising recent case answered “No.”...Read More >>

In this special episode, Jeff interviews me about the best and worst things about appellate law. I talk about a couple of my favorite war stories, my approach to legal writing, and my favorite comedian. Then to business, we discuss some recent cases, including appellate sanctions for trial court conduct, the nonappealability of arbitrator injunctions,...Read More >>

On episode 29 of the California Appellate Law Podcast, probate appellate attorney David Greco joins Tim Kowal and Jeff Lewis to discuss some of the unique features and challenges in probate appeals: Fact challenges in probate appeals are uniquely difficult to win. Probate trials are typically bench trials, and appellate courts very rarely overturn a...Read More >>

The authors of the famous CalAttorneysFees.com blog, Marc Alexander and Michael Hensley, visit the California Appellate Law Podcast to discuss tips, traps, and best practices on attorney fee motions. We discuss why California’s attorney fees statutes can be so complicated, why reasonable fees sometimes get cut, and why unreasonable fees sometimes don’t. Some key takeaways:...Read More >>

When we covered some of the tips and pitfalls of family-law appeals on episode 6 of the California Appellate Law Podcast, it became one of our most popular episodes. So we invited Victoria Fuller, a certified appellate specialist focusing on family law, to join us for another installment. Walking practitioners through various procedural issues in...Read More >>

“I’m not a prophet,” Judge Lawrence VanDyke wrote in his controversial concurring opinion in McDougall v. County of Ventura. Second Amendment attorney Sean Brady disagrees. Joining appellate attorneys Tim Kowal and Jeff Lewis, Sean says Judge VanDyke will be proven correct: the Ninth Circuit in the last several years has granted en banc review of...Read More >>

Reviewing some 9th Circuit and California appellate cases of note from early 2022, appellate specialists Tim Kowal and Jeff Lewis discuss these juicy issues: Can the 6th Amendment right to speedy trial be indefinitely postponed due to Covid? (Yes, if the defendant is not incarcerated, says the 9th Circuit in United States v. Olsen.) Can...Read More >>

Attorney and author Ryan McCarl joins Tim and Jeff to discuss his forthcoming book, Elegant Legal Writing, and his career through academia into private practice. Ryan tells Tim and Jeff the most common mistakes in attorneys’ briefs, which include legalese (why are you still using legalese?), and providing too little white space on the page...Read More >>

Jeff Lewis and I round up some recent appellate cases, and briefly discuss why California still does not make audio recordings of proceedings like federal courts do. Here are the cases we discuss: Singman v. IMDB.com, bookmark this published opinion holding that legal propositions in a brief without a citation will be ignored. Center Street...Read More >>

Attorneys David Ettinger and Dean Bochner join hosts Tim Kowal and Jeff Lewis to explain their proposal to amend California Rules of Court 8.1115, the rule that prohibits the citation to unpublished opinions. David and Dean note that, despite rule 8.1115 near-categorical ban, the courts in practice already condone such citations in some contexts, most notably petitions for review. David also discusses the...Read More >>

In this timely episode of the California Appellate Law Podcast, health care litigator Rick Jaffe joins appellate attorneys Tim Kowal and Jeff Lewis to discuss the maelstrom of lawsuits challenging vaccine mandates in state and federal trial courts and appellate courts throughout the nation. Rick’s practice focuses on cutting-edge medical and legal issues across the...Read More >>

Appellate attorney and author Myron Moskovitz joins Jeff Lewis and me on episode 20 of the California Appellate Law Podcast. Myron has been practicing appellate law since the '60s, and has curated an impressive collection of effective strategies to win appeals. Some of the topics we discuss include: Why appellate courts should provide brief explanations...Read More >>

Appellate attorney Anne Grignon joins Tim Kowal and Jeff Lewis to discuss her recent win in  Banc of California v. Superior Court from an order compelling arbitration. Anne discusses when and why to take a writ from nonappealable orders. The attorney then turn to private judging generally, discussing Justice Segal's recent caution about the industry's...Read More >>

We discussed Marin Housing Authority v. Reilly on episode 14 of the California Appellate Law Podcast. Appellate attorney John Reeves joined us to discuss his amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court explaining why the California Supreme Court's 4-3 decision was incorrectly decided. The U.S. Solicitor General apparently agrees. Reilly involves the question whether a public housing authority, in calculating a...Read More >>

Frances Campbell  of Campbell & Farahani, LLP  joins Tim Kowal and Jeff Lewis for a discussion about housing law, eviction defense, appeals and practicing in limited jurisdiction courts. Fran shares her views on the coming eviction tsunami (spoiler, she says it's a myth) , the term "HateWrite," and the font Cochin for brief writing. Appellate...Read More >>

Lee Goldberg joins us for a discussion about his perspective as in house counsel. Lee shares decades of experience using litigators to solve business problems and offers advice for trial attorneys serving corporate clients. We talk about Lee’s recent video series on LinkedIn and his website CalLawyers.com, and what a general counsel looks for when...Read More >>

What was it like to give the first virtual oral argument in the California Supreme Court? And how did the Orange County District Attorney's office create a new legal precedent in California that effectively allows local district attorneys to pursue statewide enforcement actions? Kelly Ernby of the Orange County District Attorney's office tells Jeff Lewis...Read More >>

Attorney business coach Alay Yajnik was kind enough to invite me onto his podcast, the Lawyer Business Advantage, to discuss how an appellate attorney can help trial attorneys win and add value to the services they provide clients, telling clients appreciate hearing why the attorney cares about the case rather than just how much the...Read More >>

Jeff Calkins, a recently-retired senior research attorney with the Court of Appeal, talks with appellate attorneys Jeff Lewis and Tim Kowal about what it is like working at an appellate court ("like a monastery," in a good way), about how the writ panel works, cultural differences in the different district Courts of Appeal, and why...Read More >>

Appellate attorney John Reeves  joined TVA appellate attorney Tim Kowal and co-host Jeff Lewis to discuss incorporating amicus briefs into your appellate strategy. John discusses Marin Housing Authority v. Reilly, a California case pending possible review by the United States Supreme Court, and has already attracted the interest of amici. At issue is whether a...Read More >>