What was the most valuable lesson you learned in your first year of practice? I learned that compelling legal writing is an essential skill for appellate advocates. The best legal writers have spent decades refining their craft. And short sentences are often more effective than long ones.
Describe your biggest win or accomplishment in practice. In Ross v. Blake, the Supreme Court address[ed] whether “exceptional circumstances” supply an exception to [a] requirement of the Prison Litigation Reform Act. The broad consensus was that our position [would] lose. I re-conceptualized the central issues in the case [and] orchestrat[ed] a win — one of my most significant accomplishments.
