Our latest featured speaker is Sean SeLegue from Arnold & Porter!

Sean will be speaking at our upcoming Appellate Law Certified Legal Specialist Exam Four-Part Online Prep Course (CA) on August 22, 23, 24 and September 7, 2023. This will be his first time speaking with us. He is also set to speak at our 9th Annual Advanced Appellate program in February of 2024 (in the works).  Welcome, Sean!

Sean is a partner at Arnold & Porter. He has honed his skills in appellate practice with a career of over 30 years and has extensive experience in defending malpractice and malicious prosecution actions and attorney discipline defense.

A former Chair of the State Bar of California Board of Trustees and the Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct, Sean has advised and represented dozens of lawyers and law firms. He has overseen internal investigations for law firms and has advised firms and appeared on their behalf, in investigations and inquiries by the State Bar and federal judges. Sean also has served as an expert witness.

Additionally, Sean is a certified appellate specialist, State Bar of California, a member and officer of the selective California Academy of Appellate Lawyers and a member of the invitation-only American Academy of Appellate Lawyers.

Sean began his career in appellate law in 1991 with a clerkship for the fantastic Judge Cynthia Holcomb Hall of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Since then, he has handled appeals in many areas, including energy law, products liability, real estate, partnership disputes, securities law, contract law and high-asset community property disputes in marital dissolution (divorce) cases.

Thank you for joining us, Sean!

Our latest featured speaker is Jocelyn Sperling from Complex Appellate Litigation Group!

Jocelyn will be speaking at our upcoming Appellate Law Certified Legal Specialist Exam Four-Part Online Prep Course (CA) on August 22, 23, 24 and September 7, 2023. This will be her first time speaking for Pincus and comes highly recommended. Many of her colleagues at CALG have spoke at our appellate programs over the years. Welcome, Jocelyn!

Jocelyn is a counsel at Complex Appellate Litigation Group. She handles a wide range of civil appeals. Her diverse practice includes employment, tort, contract, real property, and attorney fee matters.

 For more than a decade, she has represented clients in civil appeals and writ petitions in the California Courts of Appeal and Ninth Circuit. Before joining CALG, she was an appellate lawyer at Bien & Summers and at her own firm, and litigated cases at a boutique employment firm earlier in her career.

Additionally, Jocelyn serves on the Committee on Appellate Courts of the California Lawyers Association’s Litigation Section, where she has led key access-to-justice projects. She is co-founder and vice chair of the Alameda County Bar Association’s Appellate Law Section, and chair of the ACBA’s Judicial Appointments Evaluation Committee.

Jocelyn also co-authors a chapter on appealability in CEB’s highly regarded California Civil Appellate Practice and frequently speaks on appellate issues. In addition to her retained work, she routinely handles pro bono work for Centro Legal de la Raza, a nonprofit organization in Oakland that provides free legal services to low-income communities.

Thank you for joining us, Jocelyn!

Our latest featured speaker is Polly Estes from Estes Law Group!

Polly will be speaking at our upcoming Appellate Law Certified Legal Specialist Exam Four-Part Online Prep Course (CA) on August 22, 23, 24 and September 7, 2023. She will also be speaking at our upcoming 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Boot Camp on September 26 & 28, 2023. We are excited to have her with us for these upcoming programs!

Polly has spoken at many of our appellate related programs in the past, including our 5th Annual Advanced Appellate seminar in 2020 in Los Angeles and moderating and teaching at our 2021 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Boot Camp. Every time Polly has spoken, she has received terrific reviews, which is why we keep inviting her back!

Polly is the managing partner at Estes Law Group. She has successfully tried numerous bench and jury trials in such diverse areas as class actions, freedom of speech and freedom of religion, securities fraud, tax regulation, riparian rights, eminent domain, professional liability, and high-dollar insurance bad faith. Polly’s expertise has been recognized by the California State Bar.  She is Board Certified as an expert in Appellate Law.

Among the wide range of legal topics Polly covers, appellate arena where she really shines.  She has spent 15 years of her career working for state and federal appellate courts, where she helped judges evaluate the merits of more than 500 civil, criminal, and administrative appeals.  On a daily basis, Polly defended her analysis through oral presentations, extensive memoranda and proposed dispositions, often working under intense time pressure.  After debating the merits of cases with judges at all levels of the judiciary for more than two decades, Polly knows how to persuade both judges and juries successfully.  She knows how judges think, what questions they want answered, and the time constraints they face. 

Before starting Estes Law Group, Polly served as the Chief Law Clerk to the Honorable Carlos T. Bea on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit for eight years.  As Judge Bea’s Chief Law Clerk, Polly supervised and trained the other law clerks and externs, a position she loved because it was essentially “teaching the best law school class ever.”  She was also the chief editor and “problem solver,” often called in to help the Judge and other clerks think through complex problems.  She also helped evaluate cases for en banc calls and wrote speeches for the judge, all while handling a full load of cases herself.

In addition to working for courts, Polly worked for six years for two prominent national law firms—Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld and Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal (now Dentons).  While at these firms, Polly handled a number of trials and appeals, most notably high-exposure bad faith insurance trials and appeals for State Farm, USAA, and Allstate.  She was often brought in to handle the appeal when another firm lost at trial.  Polly won each of these appeals. Polly has extensive experience writing amicus curiae briefs in courts around the country to help shape the law that affected the firm’s clients.

Thank you for joining us again, Polly!