Ninth Circuit Appellate Lawyer Representatives - Appellate Mentoring Program
Purpose
The Appellate Mentoring Program is intended to provide mentoring on a voluntary basis to attorneys who are new to federal appellate practice or would benefit from guidance at the appellate level. In addition to general assistance regarding federal appellate practice, the project will provide special focus on two substantive areas of practice – immigration law and habeas corpus petitions. Mentors will be volunteers who have experience in immigration, habeas corpus, and/or appellate practice in general. The project is limited to counseled cases.
Coordination, recruitment of volunteer attorneys, disseminating information about the program, and requests for mentoring
Current or former Appellate Lawyer Representatives (ALRs) will serve as coordinators for the Appellate Mentoring Program. The coordinators will recruit volunteer attorneys with appellate expertise, particularly in the project’s areas of focus, and will maintain a list of those volunteers. The coordinators will ask the volunteer attorneys to describe their particular strengths in terms of mentoring experience, substantive expertise, and appellate experience, and will maintain a record of this information as well.
The Court will include information about the Appellate Mentoring Program in the case opening materials sent to counsel and will post information about it on the Court’s website. Where appropriate in specific cases, the Court may also suggest that counsel seek mentoring on a voluntary basis.
Counsel who desire mentoring should contact the court at mentoring@ca9.uscourts.gov, and staff will notify the program coordinators. The coordinators will match the counsel seeking mentoring with a mentor, taking into account the mentor’s particular strengths.
The mentoring process
The extent of the mentor’s guidance may vary depending on the nature of the case, the mentee’s needs, and the mentor’s availability. In general, the mentee should initiate contact with the mentor, and the mentee and mentor should determine together how best to proceed. For example, the areas of guidance may range from basic questions about the mechanics of perfecting an appeal to more sophisticated matters such as effective research, how to access available resources, identification of issues, strategy, appellate motion practice, and feedback on writing.
Responsibility/liability statement
The mentee is solely responsible for handling the appeal and any other aspects of the client’s case, including all decisions on whether to present an issue, how to present it in briefing and at oral argument, and how to counsel the client. By participating in the program, the mentee agrees that the mentor shall not be liable for any suggestions made. In all events, the mentee is deemed to waive and is estopped from asserting any claim for legal malpractice against the mentor.
The mentor’s role is to provide guidance and feedback to the mentee. The mentor will not enter an appearance in the case and is not responsible for handling the case, including determining which issues to raise and how to present them and ensuring that the client is notified of proceedings in the case and receives appropriate counsel. The mentor accepts no professional liability for any advice given.
Confidentiality statement
The mentee alone will have contact with the client, and the mentee must maintain client confidences, as appropriate, with respect to non-public information.