Thread by @RMFifthCircuit

OK, so I'm on the plane back to Houston, and I'm going to try to do my retrospective. Obviously, we don't know the result yet, but win or lose, I think my process more or less worked, so here we go. 1/ #AppellateTwitter.

First, get yourself a firm like this one. When the case was granted, @TWapplaw and @HollenbeckRuss came into my office and said, "buddy, you are arguing this case." There might have been a bad word or two in there too to emphasize that message. 2/

I think it's hard to express how key that support is. So I am ever grateful that I work for people who didn't bigfoot me out, but instead let me have this incredible experience. That's a debt that can't be repaid. /3

Now on to to the, "How does an average joe appellate lawyer prepare for SCOTUS." My first step was to read and reread the briefs, and prepare a very basic outline of what I would say if no one asked me a single question. This turned out to be 8-19 minutes of stuff. /4

Oh, one other preliminary thing: if at all possible get yourself co-counsel. The Stanford SCOTUS clinic is one of the finest groups of people I've ever worked with. They are legit incrediblle, I was proud to share this case with them. 10/10, 5 yelp stars, whatever. /5

Back to the how-to. After the initial outline, I generated dozens of questions and careful answers on index cards. In doing this work, David Frederick's book on oral argument was invaluable, especially the chapter about the types of questions the justices typically ask. /6

I then spent several days asking myself these questions and working on my answers. When I say asking myself, I mean I set up a camera, and spoke to it for an hour at a time, and drawing a new question card every 20 seconds or so. /7

I learned early on that I needed total recall of the key cases. So in the morning, sort of like a catholic devotional practice, I re-read every single important case, which I had my assistant put in a binder, front to back. /8

I did 3 moots. I think it was enough I think you need 2 days in between the moots to absorb the lessons and incorporate them into your key answers. Have someone else take notes - it's impossible to remember what happened. /9

At some point between these moots, I decided there were about 10 totally key questions. I wrote these on a piece of paper and thought about them more or less constantly. How to answer them; how to tie them to the main strains of argument; how to avoid getting bogged. /10

I also decided there were really only 6 things it was important that I said, no matter what the justices asked. So I wrote those down on an index card and endlessly drilled saying them. /11

By the end, I could have given my argument, and said the six key things, in any concievable order. Whatever the merits of my effort, this was the key. /12

Logistics: I went to DC a whole week in advance. I don't think that's necessary, but I think I needed to do that in this scenario to be at peak readiness. If this was oral argument #3 or 4 for me in SCOTUS, I'd cut that part. /13

In terms of the writing part (yes, I saw your complaint, @JustinTweets4) a couple of observations. A) The timeline is coo-coo pants. 30 days, no extensions, nothing. Against utterly masterful briefers (@ColleenSinzdak & Co). /14

b) the depth of this briefing is an order of magnitude more than my typical CA5 brief. I work hard on those briefs, but you have to deepen your approach, and broaden. How does this all fit into the scheme of federal law? Where do all the threads end up? /15

Let me emphasize again co-counsel in this process. I could have done it alone, but the final product wouldn't have been as good - not on my first such brief. That's not false modesty, it's just true. /16

Broader thoughts: the SCOTUS community was INCREDIBLE throughout this process. So many sua sponte offers of help, in the highest good faith. I can list the people, but I won't embarrass them unless they want to be: I appreciate them all. /17

I kept a personal diary throughout. The day cert was granted, I decided I wanted to squeeze this experience dry like an over-squeezed lemon. It may never happen again - this isn't my world. So I wrote a few words about all the big events down in a book. Took pictures. /18

If you're like me, and don't expect to do this often, I'd suggest spending a little money from your pocket to make this all work well. I rented a nice air Bnb, paid for family to come out, etc. It's worth it (if it works financially). /19

A final word, for now. TAKE THE SCOTUS QUILLS. They're on the table for you, take them without remorse; all of them; no mercy. /e

Oh, I forgot one more step. I listened to oral argument in every significant case cited in the briefs for the last decade or so, looking for potential lines of questioning. This turned out to be wise. /e+1

Another note: you're told that it's hard to know what side of the bench voices are coming from. I didn't have this problem, because I've listened to so many arguments over the last 3 years I feel like I could play a weird game of marco polo with the Justices. But 1/

I DID have trouble hearing Justice Ginbsburg, and you can see that in the transcript, and I was pretty embarrassed. The Justice was polite about it, however. /e+3

Ah, another topic: notes at the lectern. I took a couple of sheets with my outline. I didn't look down at them. I also took an index card with things I wanted to talk about first. /e+4

I noticed the SG's people (BTW, holy moly is that an impressive group of people) have an argument binder with all sorts of tabs, but I have no idea how one would use that. I can imagine in a densely statutory case you'd want the text with you, but otherwise I'm at a loss. /e+5