In his celebrated article, John W. Davis, the leading advocate of his time, observed that the supreme objective of a brief is to convince the judicial mind. Davis, The Argument of an Appeal, 26 A.B.A.J. 895 (1940). What is required is a technique of presentation that will persuade to the optimum.
“His (Chief Justice Hughes’) biographer, Mr. Merlo Pusey of the Washington Post has written me that his remedy was:’… to present his case so clearly, so quickly, and so forcefully as to forestall any questions which might arise in the judge’s mind before the question could be asked. That seems like a pretty large order, but he seems to have succeeded in many instances. Justice Cardozo told his associates on the Supreme Court that when Hughes appeared before him in New York, he always waited for twenty-four hours to make his decision to avoid being carried away by the force of Mr. Hughes’ argument and personality.’”
