Is it possible to do more than appellate work as an appellate lawyer? Forum

[Anonymous User]

I’m leaving my firm to clerk this year and am thinking about what I want my practice to be when I’m done clerking. I’d ideally like to re-join my firm (or another firm) and do a mix of appellate work and general complex litigation. Is it common or frowned upon to do both? I’ve been able to do both as a junior so far and I really enjoy the variety.

[12YrsAnAssociate]

Depends. Lots of firms use appellate lawyers to draft big trial court briefs. To me, the best part of appellate was the set schedules, ready availability of extensions, and amount of time I had to draft briefs. I now do pretty much all trial level work and although I've found a better niche for my career advancement because I happened to find a client that needs my services in trial court a lot, it's far more stressful.

[Wild Card]

At some firms, there are dedicated "Supreme Court and Appellate Practice" practices where the associates do nothing but appellate work. I'm thinking Orrick (?), Mayer Brown.

You just have to investigate and ask around, lest you let it slip during interviews that you want to do both.

[Barrred]

It is not only "possible," it is likely. Exceedingly few associates are able to carve out entirely-appellate practices, especially with "just" a COA clerkship under your belt (a lot of the big appellate groups are staffed mainly with former SCOTUS people, and even they typically also do all-level brief writing).