Thank you to my former and current law students for a rewarding experience. For over a decade, I have enjoyed teaching appeals at both Seton Hall Law School and Rutgers Law School. Please do not hesitate to contact me should you have questions about appeals or any other legal issues that you encounter while practicing law.
Thank you, Jeffrey S. Mandel
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Appellate Advocacy, Upper-Class Elective Course
(3 law school credits)
A study of appellate practice and procedure, brief writing, and oral advocacy through both lectures and practical experiences. Each student is given the record of an actual case and is required to prepare a full brief and present an oral argument.
RECOMMENDED READING
"New Jersey Appellate Practice", Gann Law Books (2009). Students currently enrolled at Rutgers Law School can purchase this book for $30.00 (reduced from $113.00) at class.
This reading is recommended, not required. The book, however, is something that you may be happy to have once you start practicing law. Once class ends, the student discount is no longer available.
CLASS ASSIGNMENT
Final brief issue: Is the United States Supreme Court case of Padilla v. Kentucky, 599 U.S. __, 130 S.Ct. 1473, 176 L.Ed.2d 284 (2010) retroactive. The second issue that will be part of your Legal Argument is: Does a depravation of the right to effective assistance of counsel based on a Padilla violation allow someone in New Jersey to file a petition for post-conviction relief beyond the five-year time limitation set forth in Rule 3:22-1.
UPDATE: Final grades have been submitted to the school.
INTENSIVE WRITING REQUIREMENT TO GRADUATE FROM LAW SCHOOL
Your Student Handbook states, on page 23:
Graduation Writing Requirement: All students must satisfy the upper class writing requirement. Students may meet the graduation writing requirement by completing a piece of work including critical analysis of a legal question and which may include professional papers such as pleading's which are the consequence of analytic work. Normally, the work will be at least 25 doubled-spaced typed pages, and must be completed one semester prior to graduation (unless prior permission to do it during the last semester has been obtained from Dean Rothman). Some examples of ways to meet this requirement are: . . . appellate advocacy coursework . . . .The faculty member who certifies a paper as satisfying this requirement must be satisfied that the paper is of adequate quality, and may find the paper inadequate for certification even if the student received a passing grade on the paper.
Below is a link to the Student Handbook. It is your responsibility to confirm that this is the most current version and that you comply with it.
http://law.newark.rutgers.edu/files/u/Handbook%202008-09.pdf
DROPPING THE CLASS
The section of your Student Handbook on page 25 captioned "ADDING AND DROPPING COURSES" applies to this class. That section provides:
After the third week of classes, the transcripts of students who withdraw from a course will reflect the grade of "W." Caveat: the instructor's permission also will be required in a course or seminar with a small enrollment where reliance on the student's participation may be an integral part of the course, but such permission shall not be unreasonably withheld.
CLASS ATTENDANCE
The "CLASS ATTENDANCE" section of your Student Handbook, on pages 26-27, applies to this class. While the entire section is applicable, please note in particular the following portion:
A faculty member is permitted to count classroom performance – both good and bad performance – in grading, provided he has informed the students of that intention at the beginning of the semester.
THE INFORMATION ON THIS WEBSITE WILL ALSO BE PROVIDED TO YOU ON THE FIRST DAY OF CLASS
Find a typo on a class slide, a misstatement during a class presentation, or a typo on this website and you will earn yourself a Schrute buck.
