How to Succeed in Appellate Writing and Advocacy

While Appellate Writing and Advocacy (AWA) is a challenging class, it provides law students with the fundamental skills necessary for written and oral advocacy. I spoke with 3Ls who had AWA last fall to get their suggestions for current AWA students on how to succeed in AWA, both writing the brief and doing oral argument. Current AWA students, here are some tips for you. During the writing process, Luis Gutierrez suggests that good topic sentences are a great way to…

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After Michels v. Lyons, What Visitation Rights Do Grandparents Actually Have?

grandparents with grandchildrenAlthough the Wisconsin Supreme Court rarely hears family law cases, this year it heard Michels v. Lyons, which involved Wisconsin Statutes Section 767.43(3), also known as the Grandparent Visitation Statute.

There, a child’s maternal grandmother filed a petition for visitation after the parents, who never married and were no longer together, chose to reduce the amount of time the child spent with the grandmother. The circuit court granted visitation rights to the grandmother, and the court of appeals certified the matter to the Wisconsin Supreme Court to clarify the standard of proof that is required for a grandparent to overcome a fit parent’s decision regarding visitation.

Clarifying the standard of proof necessary, Justice Rebecca Dallett, writing for the majority, vacated the order granting the grandmother visitation and discussed the constitutionality of the Grandparent Visitation Statute itself. (more…)

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