Thread by @RMFifthCircuit

I gave some advice over the weekend that I want to spin out a little. The crisp bottom line is that the "sophistication" of legal work is often orthogonal to the satisfaction an appellate lawyer can derive from working on it. 1/ #AppellateTwitter

One of the factors that kept me in my first job longer than I should have stayed was the belief that I needed to work on "sophisticated" matters. By this I understood big dollar civil matters involving complex commercial disputes or many parties or "bet the company" scenarios /2

And it is true that in many cases, those cases *do* involve very interesting issues. Novel, cutting, edge disputes about securities fraud, or the conflicts between federal and state jurisdiction, or complex matters of federal procedural law. /3

But it is also true that a case that the sophisticated practitioner might turn their nose up at will often *also* spin off fascinating issues. My case for Lois Davis, a Title VII matter much like many litigated in the federal courts, landed in SCOTUS. That's an outlier. But /4

I have litigated so many interesting issues over my practice that have resulted in appellate decisions of first impression that arose from cases that old Raffi would initially have been unimpressed by. /5

Here's an example. It looks like a personal injury case, yes? No, it's a complex intersection of SCOTUS and state law! /6

ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/1…

I've litigated novel issues of the bankruptcy rules; arbitration and waiver; the extent of tort liability for the criminal acts of third parties (truly a 1L tort issues); various issues of complex statutory interpretation; and the list is endless.
/7

Anyway, my advice is - if your goal is to be an appellate lawyer and if given a choice - to prioritize being able to do appeals every single day *over* what might be termed sophistication.

Not only will this give you a better chance of success, you can take matters over
/8

By yourself earlier and work with a broader range of clients than the sophisticated-only appellate lawyer.

That's not to say you shouldn't grab the big firm pure appellate practice if it presents itself. Godspeed. My advice is practical advice for those who have alternate paths.

To be clear, I'm not saying the person I spoke to thought all these things. Just that the conversation I had made me remember *I* had mistakenly thought the other thing, and I want to at least caution others on the same path about this temptation.

/e