Nov. 1, 2023 – Appellate brief writing is an art – and it’s time to share your writing.
Are you proud of your briefs? Have you or a colleague written an exceptional appellate brief recently, or have you read a stellar brief?
Enter the State Bar of Wisconsin Appellate Practice Section's Best Briefs Competition to identify and recognize outstanding appellate briefs. The section is hosting its fifth competition.
The competition celebrates the art and craft of brief writing and showcases the writing of Wisconsin lawyers.
This competition is for briefs filed in cases resolved between Jan. 1, 2022, and Dec. 31, 2023. The deadline for submitting a brief is Jan. 31, 2024. The winning brief writers will be publicly recognized at an event in summer 2024.
“We’re excited to start reviewing submissions in early 2024,” said Christina Plum, chief staff attorney for the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, and chair of the competition. “We encourage appellate writers to submit their own briefs or nominate a great brief written by someone else.”
“While eight years have passed since our first Best Briefs Competition, the goals summarized by 2016-17 section chair Shelley Fite remain the same: to recognize great writers, to promote appellate advocacy, and to identify briefs that can be used as models for new and improving appellate lawyers,” Plum said.
For examples, see past award-winning briefs in the Dec. 16, 2016, June 20, 2018, July 15, 2020, and June 1, 2022, issues of InsideTrack.
Nominating a Brief is Easy
Anyone can nominate a brief – the authors, colleagues, friends, judges, clerks, or other admirers of great legal writing. Nominations are anonymous, and you can submit as many as you want.
To nominate a brief, visit the competition page on WisBar.org (you’ll need to log in first) and provide the basic information. You do not need to submit the briefs themselves – we will retrieve them after the submission deadline.
Eligible briefs can be those that are filed in state or federal courts. Keep in mind that qualifying briefs must be in cases resolved by Dec. 31, 2023.
To qualify for the competition:
the primary author must be a State Bar member in good standing;
the brief must have been submitted to an appellate court, but it doesn't need to have been the winning brief; and
the appeal in which the brief was submitted must have been resolved between Jan. 1, 2022, and Dec. 31, 2023.
You can find out more on the competition webpage on WisBar.org.
The judging process:
the winning briefs are chosen anonymously by retired Wisconsin judges;
briefs are judged on clarity of writing, depth of analysis, and persuasiveness – not on the apparent merits of any issue; and
the winning brief writers (and their firms or agencies) will be publicly recognized at an event in June 2024.
Questions? Email briefscompetition@wisbar.org.
