From the Chair
It is my pleasure to welcome everyone to the Appellate Practice Section this year.
Since this Section was established, it has flourished. The Appellate Practice Section comprises over 480 attorneys who handle appeals in state and federal courts. There are still attorneys whose practices involve appeals but who are not members of this Section. If you know one of these lawyers, please extend to them an invitation on my behalf.
If you are a member of this Section, I invite you to get involved. We have held a number of events this Fall, and have more events planned. We would love for you to join us.
We are planning a program during the Bar’s Midyear Meeting at the Ritz-Carlton Buckhead, on Jan. 5, 2017, at noon. We will celebrate the careers of Chief Justice Hugh P. Thompson of the Supreme Court of Georgia and Presiding Judge Herbert E. Phipps of the Court of Appeals of Georgia. Check your email for registration information.
On Oct. 18, we were pleased to welcome former Supreme Court of Georgia Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears to speak at our scheduled lunch program. And at our Sept. 29 meeting, we heard from Dave Smith, the Clerk of Court for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit and his Chief Deputy Clerk, Amy Nerenberg. We also had committee sign-up sheets.
The Programming & Events Committee is responsible for administering the Section’s lunch programs and special events. The Communications Committee is responsible for publishing the newsletter, administering the listserv, and coordinating other outlets for information about section
activities. The State Practice & Legislation Committee focuses on issues relating to practice before the Supreme Court of Georgia and the Court of Appeals of Georgia, including
state appellate court proposals, comments on legislation and rules changes and considering whether to file amicus briefs.
The Federal Practice Committee focuses on issues relating to appellate practice in the federal court system, including proposals and comments on legislation and rules changes, comments to the 11th Circuit on Rules Amendments and
Proposals, overseeing ECAPI, and considering whether to file amicus briefs in federal court. And the Seminar Committee coordinates the Section’s seminars, primarily the annual state appellate practice seminar.
If you would like to get involved this year, please reach out to me or any section officer. We are happy to help. And if you have any suggestions about how we can improve our activities, we would love to hear from you.
Margaret Heinen is the 2016-17 Section chair for the Appellate Practice Section. She is a senior staff attorney with The Appellate Division of the Georgia Public Defender Council and exclusively handles direct appeals from criminal cases in Georgia superior courts.