Both Marquette Teams Win Their First Round of Oral Argument at the Boston Regional

3192890977_2b733732d6I am currently in Boston serving as coach to two teams of Marquette law students who are competing in the National Appellate Advocacy Competition’s Boston Regional Competition.  The teams are Alyssa Dowse, Rachel Helmers, and Nicholas Harken (this month’s student blogger); and Jesica Ballenger, Lindsey Johnson, and Allison Ziegler.  This evening at 5:30 p.m. both teams argued off brief in their first round.  I am delighted to report that both teams won!

The next round happens tomorrow evening.  Both teams will be arguing on brief, so I am feeling very optimistic about their chances. Wish the teams luck!  I will keep you posted.

(Note:  The Liberty Hotel, pictured above, which is hosting most of the out-of-town competitors, is in Beacon Hill on the site of the historic Charles Street Jail.)

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A Broadening of Diversity Jurisdiction

Students of civil procedure—which should mean just about everybody interested in using the formal processes of the law to vindicate rights—will be interested in a decision today by the United States Supreme Court. The opinion concerned the provision in the statutory grant of diversity jurisdiction that deems a corporation “to be a citizen of any State by which it has been incorporated and of the State where it has its principal place of business.” 28 U. S. C. §1332(c)(1) (emphasis added). There has been a longstanding imprecision—a lack of unanimity—within the lower federal courts as to whether a corporation’s “principal place of business” is its “nerve center,” “locus of operations,” “center of corporate activities,” “muscle center” (none of these latter four terms being statutory), or some otherwise determined place. In Hertz Corp. v. Friend, the Court resolved the matter.

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A View of ADR as Part of the Process Instead of an Alternative to the Process

In law school I had the impression that Alternative Dispute Resolution was a practice area separate from litigation. Seemingly, there was a Chinese wall between the trial advocacy classes and ADR classes. After all, my ADR classes never discussed the techniques for cross-examinations, and my trial advocacy classes never discussed mediation or arbitration strategies.

The ABA Young Lawyer Division’s latest newsletter perpetuates that myth in an article entitled “Top Ten Mistakes Litigators Make in Arbitration.” Certainly, the article gives good advice in telling us what to avoid — serving excessive document requests, using delay tactics, not cooperating, not being prepared, introducing redundant testimony, and filing untimely submissions. However, that advice is equally applicable to litigation as it is to arbitration.

In my experience, the differences between litigation and arbitration are cosmetic. 

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