Embracing AI in Appellate Briefing: Capitalizing on Benefits While Mitigating Risks and Avoiding Ethics Traps

Ms. Voigts has worked on cases before the United States Supreme Court, the California Supreme Court, and federal and state appellate and trial courts. A former Supreme Court and Ninth Circuit clerk, she has argued nearly 60 cases in federal and state appellate courts, more than 50 of which were in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. A former federal prosecutor with over a decade of public service in the Central and Northern District of California, Ms. Voigts has nearly twenty years of experience handling appeals and critical motions practice and routinely advises trial teams on complex legal issues in a wide range of cases. She has worked, inter alia, on cases involving antitrust law, class actions, contractual disputes, preemption issues, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the False Claims Act, the Stored Communications Act, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, copyright, and constitutional and statutory interpretation. In the class action context, Ms. Voigts has successfully petitioned for appellate review under Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(f) and regularly consults on critical motions practice on class actions in the trial and district court.

Mr. Colantuono is a certified Appellate Specialist in the State Bar of California. He offers advice and litigation for local governments, with special expertise in appellate advocacy, municipal finance, elections, land use, CEQA, and the Cortese-Knox-Hertzberg Act. 

Professor Mika has been associated with the Cleveland-Marshall Legal Writing Program since 1988. She presents nationally on topics various topics related to teaching Legal Writing, and has judged at numerous moot court competitions throughout her career. Professor Mika has lectured on essay-writing techniques for several bar review courses and has written bar exam essay questions for both the California and Minnesota bar examiners. Her areas of scholarly research are varied and she has published in the areas of Native American Law, Employment Law, Learning Theories, and Health Care. Professor Mika is also active in both the Legal Writing Institute (LWI) and the Association of Legal Writing Directors (ALWD). She is currently the unofficial historian for the Legal Writing Institute. In 2022, Professor Mika was awarded the AALS Section Award by the Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning, and Research, as well as the Provost's Award for Teaching at Cleveland State University. She was also named a Dean's Scholar at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law.