Sonoma County Bar Association  

 

General Law

 

Writs, Briefs, and Oral Arguments in the Court of Appeals

 

Learn how to focus your presentation for appeals and maximize your chance of winning.
This fast-paced class will go over the necessary elements and key ingredients of successful briefs on appeal and writ petitions, as well as discuss how to prepare for oral argument and what happens there. Don’t miss your opportunity to hear the experience of an appellate lawyer and justice on the appeal process from start to finish.

 

 

Justice Dennis A. Cornell (Ret.)
California 5th District Court of Appeal

 

Justice Dennis Cornell gained his legal experience through twenty years in private practice and twenty-three years on the bench, fifteen years of which he served as a Justice on the California Court of Appeals. He retired from the bench in June, 2015, and is currently engaging in private judging and consultation.

 

Justice Cornell received a B.A. degree from Stanford in 1969, and a J.D. (with Honors) from George Washington University Law School in 1972. He returned to his native Merced, California, where he entered private practice handling a wide variety of cases. He accrued vast trial experience during this time, taking 45-50 juries to verdict and trying countless bench trials. He has argued before every appellate court in California, and the United States Supreme Court. Before being appointed to the bench, he was listed in the Best Lawyers of America in every edition published.

 

As one of the three Superior Court judges in Merced, Justice Cornell’s docket was filled with every assignment imaginable, from 2-day criminal matters to death penalty cases, and landlord/tenant disputes to 4-month medical malpractice trials. Despite a frenetically busy court calendar, he still found time to lecture and write on law-related subjects for a variety of organizations, including Continuing Education of the Bar (CEB) and the Center for Judicial Education and Research (CJER), among others.

 

Justice Cornell served on the Board of Governors of the State Bar of California from 1985-1988, and as Vice President of the State Bar from 1987-1988. He then served on the State of California Commission on Judicial Performance from 1989-1992. He also served as a part time United States Magistrate Judge from 1986-1992. In 1992, he was appointed to the Merced Superior Court where he served as presiding judge on three separate occasions. In 2000, he was appointed to the Court of Appeal, Fifth Appellate District, where he served until his retirement on June 30, 2015.

 

 

Deborah Bull
Perry, Johnson, Anderson, Miller & Moskowitz

 

Ms. Bull is certified as an appellate specialist by the California State Bar Board of Legal Specialization. She is an associate with Perry, Johnson, Anderson, Miller & Moskowitz where she specializes in civil appeals. She has been the lead appellate attorney on over three dozen appeals resulting in seven published opinions. She is admitted to practice in California, the Federal District Court, Northern District, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces in Washington, D.C. Ms. Bull is a member of the California and Sonoma County Bar Associations and the American Inns of Court. She also volunteers as a small claims judge pro tem in Sonoma County.

 

Date: Wednesday, May 16, 2018

 

Time: Check-In: 3:45 pm; Presentation: 4:00—5:00 pm

 

Presenter(s):
Justice Dennis A. Cornell (Ret.), California 5th District Court of Appeal
Deborah Bull, Perry, Johnson, Anderson, Miller & Moskowitz

 

Place: SCBA Office, 111 Santa Rosa Ave., Ste. 222, Santa Rosa, CA 95404.
Parking for this seminar is ONLY available in the Public Parking Garage at 555 First Street. Do not park in the parking lot at 111 Santa Rosa Avenue.

 

Registration Fee: $60–SCBA Members; $75–Public;

 

MCLE: 1.0 Unit Participatory Credit in General Law

 

Student: $20 (The student discount is now available online for SCBA Student Members. Students who are not members of SCBA may utilize the student discount by downloading the registration form and submitting it with proof of current enrollment to the SCBA Offices. For more information on becoming a member of SCBA, please contact Susan Demers at (707) 542-1190 ext. 18.)

 

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