Appellate Advocacy
Convincing appellate judges to decide matters in your clients’ favor involves more than mastering the law and the facts. It involves telling a story that makes the court want to decide in your clients’ favor and then explaining how the court can do so consistent with the law. EGH thus believes effective appellate advocacy requires a thorough knowledge of not only the procedural rules and techniques for writing effective briefs, but also the art of storytelling, both in the written brief and in oral argument. EGH’s appellate lawyers have been telling their clients’ stories for more than 40 years, including appeals of administrative and trial matters involving EGH at the hearing and trial level, as well as matters referred to EGH for appeal after hearing or trial by others.
EGH employs a unique approach to appellate oral argument. Effective oral argument involves different skills than brief writing. Those skills are honed through a methodology that involves replicating the oral argument through the eyes of the opposing counsel. EGH’s success is reflected in the fact that in recent years several cases handled by our attorneys have been included among the “most important opinions” as identified by North Carolina’s Lawyers Weekly. See Egelhoff v. Szulik, 193 N.C. App. 612, 668 S.E.2d 367 (2008) and Crawford v. Mintz, 195 N.C. App. 713, 673 S.E.2d 746 (2009). A more recent case was also featured in Lawyers Weekly: Mitchell, Brewer, Richardson, Adams, Burge & Boughman, PLLC v. Brewer, __ N.C. App. __, 705 S.E.2d 757 (2011).