Among the many interesting documents that are now up on the Senate Judiciary Committee's website are syllabi for the appellate advocacy classes that Sonia Sotomayor co-taught at NYU (with Adjunct Professor John Siffert) and at Columbia (with at various times Professor (now Judge) Gerard Lynch, Assistant Dean and Lecturer-in-Law Ellen P. Chapnick, and Lecturer-in-Law Ilene Strauss). (For all the syllabi, go to the bottom of this link.) Her spring 2009 syllabus at Columbia, for instance, is here. The readings this spring included:
Joseph F. Anderson, Jr., Setting Yourself Apart from the Herd: A Judge’s Thoughts on Successful Courtroom Advocacy, 50 S.C. L. Rev. 617 (1999)
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Remarks on Appellate Advocacy, 50 S.C. L. Rev. 567 (1999)
Harold K. Gordon, Career Development: Preparing for Oral Argument, N.Y. L.J., Sept. 30, 2005
Stephen A. McEwen, Barrister’s Tips: Preparing Yourself for Oral Argument, Los Angeles Lawyer, June 2002, at 8
John G. Roberts, Jr., Thoughts on Presenting an Effective Oral Argument, School in Law Review 7-1 (1997)
Ronald J. Rychlak, Effective Appellate Advocacy: Tips from the Teams, 66 Miss. L.J. 527 (1997)
Richard H. Seamon, Preparing for Advocacy in the United States Supreme Court, 50 S.C. L. Rev. 603 (1999)
Jason Vail, Oral Argument’s Big Challenge: Fielding Questions from the Bench, 1 J. App. Prac. & Process 401 (1999).
I think the syllabi are less interesting in terms of telling us about Judge Sotomayor's philosophy than Professor Obama's race and law syllabus, which I wrote about last fall.
What other surprising documents are up there? Well, the 2001 Fordham Law School self-study.
Comments