Appeals are won by the better reading, delivered in the fewer words.1 We are an appellate boutique — briefs, oral argument, and certiorari strategy — for cases where the next decision is the last one.
1 Our median principal brief runs 8,400 words against a 13,000-word limit. Judges notice. They've told us.
Part One
Appellate work is not trial work slowed down — it is a different discipline, with its own rhythms, deadlines, and readers. Six things we do, and do only.
Principal and reply briefs in state and federal courts of appeals — researched to the footnotes, edited to the bone.
II.Prepared through full moot courts with former appellate clerks on the panel. We argue; we don't recite.
III.Petitions that explain why this case, this term — the question presented drafted before anything else.
IV.Embedded error preservation, jury instructions, and dispositive motions — the appeal, protected before it exists.
V.For industries and organizations with a stake in the rule — additive briefs courts actually cite.
VI.A candid, flat-fee assessment of appellate prospects after judgment — including when the honest answer is "don't."
Part Two
Pure legal questions, decided fresh. Our favorite standard — and the reason issue selection matters more than issue volume.
See Br. at 12–19 (choosing two issues, winning both).Steep, not sheer. We win these by showing the trial court applied the wrong framework — converting deference into de novo.
The oldest trick in the book, executed well.Fact findings rarely fall — so we rarely swing at them. Credibility with the panel is a client asset we refuse to spend cheaply.
Candor is strategy.The government's favorite word is "harmless." Our briefs make prejudice concrete: what the jury heard, and what it did next.
Reversal requires both error and consequence.Part Three
Contract ambiguity decided as law, not fact. The court of appeals adopted our reading in full and rendered judgment for our client — no retrial.
Colo. App. 2025 · commercial contractOne of seven petitions granted from 312 filed that term. The resulting decision changed allocation law statewide.
Colo. 2024 · insurance coveragePlaintiffs raised eleven issues; our response brief answered them in nine thousand words. Affirmed in an unpublished opinion, fees awarded.
10th Cir. 2025 · product liabilityIllustrative matters. Appellate outcomes depend on records, standards, and panels; no result is guaranteed.
Part Four
Partner · Former clerk, U.S. Court of Appeals
Two federal clerkships taught Eleanor how briefs get read: quickly, skeptically, and with gratitude for clarity. She has briefed 200+ appeals and argued 60, including three before the state supreme court in a single term.
J.D., University of Chicago · Order of the Coif · CO & 10th Cir. bars
Partner · Certiorari & strategy
Marcus reads cert petitions the way editors read slush piles — which is how he learned to write ones that get picked up. Former solicitor's office attorney; incurable footnote minimalist.
J.D., Yale · Former Asst. Solicitor General · SCOTUS bar
"Their brief was the first one I didn't have to translate for the client. The panel quoted it twice at argument — then again in the opinion."
Part Five
Appellate deadlines are unforgiving — often 30 days or fewer from judgment. Whether you won below or lost, the time to involve us is now.