(L-R): Angela Flowers, Elissa Haynes, Larry Ebner, Miranda Soto, Ann Trivett, Caryn Lilling
At the 2024 Winter Meeting of the Federation of Defense & Corporate Counsel in St. Petersburg, Florida, I organized and moderated a lively and insightful panel on the many benefits of including an appellate specialist in a trial team. Our distinguished panelists, who provided savvy practical advice from both trial and appellate attorneys’ perspectives, were Angela Flowers, Elissa Haynes, Caryn Lilling, Miranda Soto, and Ann Trivett. Topics included how appellate counsel can help to develop defense strategy, frame key legal defenses & issues, brief & argue threshold motions, identify expert testimony needed for the record, and draft jury instructions & special verdict forms. We also discussed how to persuade a corporate client that adding an appellate specialist at the outset of a case can bring great value to a litigation team.