Practical Tips for Effective Appellate Advocacy

Appellate advocacy is a specialized practice area. This CLE program provides practitioners with practical strategies and insights to enhance their effectiveness in representing clients before appellate courts. It focuses on key principles, techniques, and recent developments in appellate practice, equipping participants with the tools needed to navigate complex appellate cases successfully.

Learning Objectives

• Discuss practical tips for effectively presenting ones case and persuading appellate judges.
• Learn from preeminent lawyers and jurists.
• Review updates to the NC Rules of Appellate Procedure.

Hon. Mark Martin

Martin’s successful career includes previously serving as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, as an Associate Judge on the North Carolina Court of Appeals, and most recently as dean and professor of law at Regent University School of Law.

Dean Mark Martin is a respected voice in both judicial and academic circles, an accomplished attorney, jurist and professor, as well as an advocate for access to justice, legal reform, and innovation in legal education.

During his 26-year judicial career, Martin served at every level of the court system and ultimately as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina from 2014- 2019. He advocated for judicial reform by expanding juvenile court jurisdiction through a program called “Raise the Age.” In addition, he established a pro bono resource center in North Carolina to improve access to justice. The Chief Justice of the United States appointed Martin to the Committee on Federal-State Jurisdiction of the United States Judicial Conference. Martin also served on the board of directors of the Conference of Chief Justices, an influential organization with a direct influence on the development of codes of ethics and legal best practices nationwide.

Dean Martin previously served as chair of the Appellate Judges Education Institute Board of Directors. He chaired the Commission on Professionalism and Equal Access to Justice Commission. He is also a member of the American Law Institute, where he assisted with the Third Restatement, Conflict of Laws, and served on the Region 15 Advisory Committee. He also chaired the Commission on the Future of the North Carolina Business Court.

Dean Martin is currently a member of the Judicial Advisory Committee for the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and an emeritus member of the Standing Committee on Election Law. He also chairs the Thomson Reuters Judicial Advisory Council. At the state level, he serves as a member of the Judicial Independence Committee of the North Carolina Bar Association.

Dean Martin’s advocacy for the rule of law has extended beyond the United States. He served on the Commission for the World Justice Project and was a two-time delegate to the World Justice Forum, the first-ever global convening to promote the multidisciplinary importance of the rule of law. The Queen’s Bench, Commercial Division in London appointed Dean Martin as an expert witness in 2021.

During his service on the Supreme Court of North Carolina, Martin served on the adjunct faculties at Duke University, North Carolina Central University, and University of North Carolina law schools. He also served as a founding board member of the Bolch Judicial Institute at Duke Law School.

Dean Martin’s lifetime of public service and devotion to the rule of law has been recognized by many organizations. In 2011 Martin was inducted into the Warren Burger Society of the National Center for State Courts. He is a recipient of the Patriotic Employer Award of the United States Department of Defense. Martin has received the ABA Robert Yegge Award for Outstanding Contribution in Judicial Administration, the Liberty Bell Award of the North Carolina Bar Association, and the Order of the Long Leaf Pine (which is the highest award given to a civilian in North Carolina). He is an honorary member of the American Counsel Association.

Dean Martin has been married to Kym L. Martin for 29 years, and together they have raised five children.

Justice Sam J. Ervin IV (ret.)

Sam J. Ervin IV serves as Of Counsel for the law firm Brooks Pierce. He brings his nearly 18 years in private practice and more than 23 years’ experience as a public servant to his work in assisting clients with a variety of regulatory and litigation-related matters. Before joining Brooks Pierce, he served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina for eight years, as a Judge of the North Carolina Court of Appeals for six years, and as a Commissioner of the North Carolina Utilities Commission for nine and a half years. During his time as a Utilities Commissioner, he served as Chair of the Subcommittee on Nuclear Issues and the Committee on Electricity of the National Association of Regulatory Utilities Commissioners and as a member of the board of the Organization of PJM States. During his time in private practice, former Justice Ervin handled a wide variety of civil, criminal, and administrative matters and participated in many civil and criminal jury trials and numerous civil and criminal appeals to the North Carolina Court of Appeals and the North Carolina Supreme Court. He is a Board Certified Specialist in Utilities Law from the North Carolina State Bar Board of Legal Specialization.

John R. Wester

John R. Wester is a litigator in Robinson Bradshaw’s Charlotte office. His trials and appeals encompass corporate governance and shareholder rights disputes, federal securities and ERISA actions, unfair trade practice and trade secret disputes, tax controversies and employment discrimination. He has prosecuted and defended numerous class action cases in federal and state courts, with extensive experience in the North Carolina Business Court. Wester has also served as lead counsel in noteworthy cases reaching the U.S. Supreme Court.

Outside his wheelhouse of business litigation, Wester has brought and defended cases advancing constitutional issues. He was lead counsel in the North Carolina Supreme Court for Gov. Patrick McCrory and former Govs. James Hunt and James Martin in a successful challenge to the General Assembly’s limiting the governor’s authority over boards and commissions. In 2018, Wester was lead counsel for Gov. Roy Cooper challenging the General Assembly’s proposed constitutional amendment to remove the governor’s authority to fill judicial vacancies.

In 2021, Wester received the Advocate’s Award, the highest honor given by the North Carolina Bar Association’s Litigation Section.

Wester is a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers. He was state chair of the College in 2004-06.

In 2009-10, he served as president of the North Carolina Bar Association.

Wester was a Morehead Scholar at the University of North Carolina. He graduated with high honors from Duke Law School, where he was Note and Comment editor of the Duke Law Journal and inducted into the Order of the Coif.

JUSTICE ROBERT EDMUNDS JR.

Hon. Robert (“Bob”) H. Edmunds currently serves as HPU Law’s first Jurist-in-Residence and Lecturer on Law.

Following service as a line officer in the United States Navy, Bob Edmunds began his legal career as an Assistant District Attorney in Guilford County, North Carolina. He was later named an Assistant United States Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina and was then appointed in 1986 by President Ronald Reagan to serve as the United States Attorney. President George H.W. Bush retained Edmunds as United States Attorney until he left to enter private practice in 1993.

While in private practice, Edmunds practiced criminal and appellate law with a firm in Greensboro, and he became board certified as a specialist in state and federal criminal law and in appellate practice. In 1998 Bob Edmunds was elected to the North Carolina bench. He first served on the North Carolina Court of Appeals and then served for sixteen years—from 2001 to 2016—as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of North Carolina. After his judicial service, Justice Edmunds reentered private practice, working in the appellate practice section of the Greensboro office of Fox Rothschild, LLP.

Throughout his career, Justice Edmunds has exemplified a heart of service. He has served as President of the Appellate Judges Education Institute and as a member of the Education Committee of the National Judicial College. He is the past Chair of both the American Bar Association’s Appellate Judges Conference and the North Carolina Bar Association’s Judicial Independence and Integrity Committee. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute and has served as an adjunct professor at multiple law schools. He also contributes his time to community service and has donated blood more than 100 times since college.

Justice Edmunds received his A.B. from Vassar College and his J.D. from the University of North Carolina School of Law. While on the Supreme Court, he earned a Master of Law in the Judicial Process at the University of Virginia School of Law.

JUSTICE BARBARA JACKSON

Hon. Barbara Jackson is a retired Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina. She also served as an Associate Judge on the North Carolina Court of Appeals for six years.

Prior to elected office, Justice Jackson practiced law for fourteen years. Her practice included serving as General Counsel to the Commissioner of the North Carolina Department of Labor; working in the Governor’s office for an advocacy agency for persons with disabilities; and working in private practice, concentrating on land use and local government law.

Justice Jackson received both her undergraduate and law degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was a Thomas J. Watson National Merit Scholar, served on the staff of the Law Review, and was president of Phi Delta Phi. She also received an LL.M. in Judicial Studies from Duke University School of Law. Twenty years prior to being on the Supreme Court, Justice Jackson began her career as a law clerk on that very Court for Justice Burley B. Mitchell, Jr.

Justice Jackson was appointed as one of five co-chairs of a North Carolina Commission on the Administration of Law and Justice, charged with focusing on technology and the courts. She currently serves as Chair of the North Carolina Bar Association Appellate Rules Committee and is a member of the North Carolina Rules Review Commission.

Justice Jackson is a former member of the Appellate Judges Conference of the ABA and served as State Chair for North Carolina. She is a past member of the Board of Governors and Section Chair of the North Carolina Bar Association. Today, she remains active in other sections and committees. Justice Jackson also previously served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Wake County Bar Association, and she is a past member of both the North Carolina Courts Commission and the Dispute Resolution Commission.