On Appeal: Courts, Lawyering and Judging

Frank Coffin has done it again.With his The Ways of a Judge' in 1980 he shed light on the subject of judging-particularly federal appellate judging-for laymen and lawyers, for law students, and for those in journalism and politics.With his new On Appeal, 2 Judge Coffin has shed more light and made some new points.In addition to writing in understandable, sturdy New England prose for the layman or the lawyer who is not regularly engaged in the appellate process, Judge Coffin-perhaps pointedly, perhaps by accident-has directed this new work at his fellow judges, at least a good portion of it.As Judge Coffin quite openly suggests in reference to oral argument, "By their questions and comments to counsel, judges telegraph their concerns and preferences to the other judges.Oral argument is really the first stage of the conferencing among the judges. 3 As one reads, particularly in Judge Coffin's chapters on "Collegiality," 4 on "Judging Appeals," 5 and on the "Future, 6 it becomes clear that he is talking to his fellow appellate judges across the country and to those district judges who occasionally sit on the court of appeals.While, candidly, I did not expect to receive that many insights into our art-it certainly is not a science-of appellate judging, I was pleasantly otherwise surprised.I also received some new insights into the judge/law clerk relationship with which I thought I had long since fully acquainted myself.But, first things first.The structure of the book is fairly simple.Chapter One introduces us to a typical "Day in Court"-a typical day in the First Circuit courtroom, with one en banc case and half-a-dozen other civil and * Senior Circuit Judge, U.