One Court of Justice

At yesterday’s FBA “brown bag luncheon,” Judge William C. Whitbeck, from the Michigan Court of Appeals, presented his views on how to maximize the effectiveness of your presentation in that precious first 90 seconds of oral argument before the judges begin to pepper you with questions.   The premise of Judge Whitbeck’s presentation was that “you must have a premise.”  Good advocacy, whether in a brief or oral argument, must begin and end with a single premise.   Distill from the issues in your case the single premise that explains why your client should prevail.  Then state that premise at the beginning of your presentation and construct all of your arguments in a manner that edifies your premise.

Judge Whitbeck also offered a few other tips from the bench:  (1) Do not insert shards of rhetoric into your factual presentation; attacks on the other side’s character only undermine your own credibility.  (2) Use short sentences—20 words is ideal.  (3) Do not cite a lot of cases in your oral presentation.  Stick to two or three cases that you believe should control the outcome.  (4) Don’t argue with the court, persuade.  And if you can’t persuade, soften them up a bit so that you might get a good dissent to carry you to the next level.  (5) Don’t force the reader to revisit the other side’s brief to understand your argument or version of the facts.  Judges don’t have time for that.