Appellate Litigation Clinic
The Appellate Litigation Program has been one of the core clinical programs at Georgetown University Law Center for over twenty years. For the past fifteen years, the program has been directed by Professor Steven H. Goldblatt. It is, in a real sense, a small appellate litigation law firm with one senior partner (Goldblatt), two junior partners (highly qualified attorneys in a two-year fellowship program), sixteen associates (third-year law students enrolled in a year-long, nine-credit clinic), and an office manager.
The clinic caseload, both civil and criminal, includes cases involving federal agencies and exposes students to litigation in at least two federal circuits and the D.C. courts. The clinic has had four cases reach the United States Supreme Court on grants of writs of certiorari. Over twenty students working on those cases had the opportunity to participate in litigation before the highest court in the United States before they were even admitted to the bar.
The program provides intense training in the art of oral and written advocacy as it is practiced in some of the highest courts in the nation, at a level appropriate to those courts and the issues presented. The clinic strives to provide the best representation possible, comparable to that provided by the best appellate firms in the country. What the students lack in experience is offset by their enthusiasm and willingness to put time into research, writing, and preparation that would be impossible elsewhere. In return, students learn not only how to litigate on appeal but how to litigate well, adopting professional standards that will guide them throughout their legal careers.
