A roundtable to honor the Justices of the Fifth District Appellate Court will be held May 17 in Collinsville, presented by the Appellate Lawyers Association (ALA).
The event will include a luncheon and seminar co-sponsored by the St. Clair County Bar Association (SCCBA) and the Madison County Bar Association (MCBA). The luncheon is designed to help young lawyers mingle with judges without feeling intimidated.
“The Appellate Lawyers Association is a statewide bar association made up of attorneys who handle appeals and the judges who hear them,” said Richard Chase, co-chair of the ALA Seminars Committee and coordinator of the event. “We have an annual luncheon in each of the five appellate districts designed to give attorneys a chance to converse with an appellate judge. Every table will have a judge, hopefully.”
The seminar will include a Judicial Panel with Supreme Court Chief Justice Lloyd Karmeier, Justices Judy Cates and David Overstreet, and Appellate Clerk John Flood.
The panel will take questions on appellate practice and procedure, giving lawyers an inside view of appellate procedures which they may not otherwise experience.
“This is a popular program with attorneys because, unlike trial matters, a lot of what goes on in the court of appeals is really hidden from view,” Chase said.
There will be an appellate brief writing presentation following the panel with former ALA president Ted Kionka. The final presentations will focus on appellate motion practice by retired Justice Richard Goldenhersh and appellate oral arguments by former ALA president Brad Elward.