Texas Appellate Law Podcast

The real AI risk isn't hallucinations—it's not using AI at all. That's the counterintuitive argument from Ross Guberman, founder and CEO of BriefCatch , who tells hosts Todd Smith and Jody Sanders that lawyers ignoring AI may be approaching malpractice territory. BriefCatch now contains roughly 16,000 editing rules, up from about 10,000 in 2021. Ross introduces two new BriefCatch Next products: Re...

Wallace Jefferson , former Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court and newly installed President of the American Law Institute (ALI), joins Jody Sanders and Todd Smith for a wide-ranging conversation on appellate practice, judicial leadership, and legacy. Chief Justice Jefferson, a partner at Alexander Dubose & Jefferson LLP , discusses ALI's mission to modernize the law, the U.S. Supreme Cou...

Opposing counsel once called Chris Schandevel a "brief-writing ninja." He took it as a compliment. Years later, as he considered ways to add value to attorneys coming up behind him, Chris channeled that nickname into a side job: Brief-Writing Ninja , his training platform to help lawyers improve their writing skills. Why? Because good writing is good writing—whether you’re writing for a court or a...

“We have just anything you could think of,” Amy Small says of the Texas State Law Library , where she is executive director. Open to all—no attorney license required—the library serves everyday Texans and the Supreme Court alike. In this episode, hosts Jody Sanders and Todd Smith invite Amy to unpack the library’s often-overlooked resources: remote access to HeinOnline, historical statutes back to...

Election law in Texas is “very demanding” and “stressful because of the accelerated nature of the calendar,” says Elizabeth D. Alvarez . Elizabeth is head of civil litigation/election litigation at Guest & Gray and a 12-year election litigation practitioner who has represented state parties, national parties, and candidates on both sides of the aisle. She tells hosts Todd Smith and Jody Sander...

Judge Amy Clark Meachum , the Local Administrative Judge for Travis County, joins hosts Todd Smith and Jody Sanders to unpack recent legislation affecting the Texas judiciary and what it means for how courts operate today. Judge Meachum traces the escalating reporting and accountability mandates imposed on Texas trial courts through the 88th and 89th Legislatures; explains the central docket fight...

When a lawyer messes up by using an AI platform that produces mistakes, they might get sanctioned by a judge. When a judge messes up using an AI platform, “it could become precedent. So, it’s a much different conversation.” Judge Scott Schlegel , of Louisiana's Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals , speaks from his experience as an early leader in courtroom efficiency. Today, he supports a measured judi...

The final version of rewritten Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 166a—the summary judgment rule—became effective March 1, 2026. In this episode, Michael Duncan , an appellate and motions practitioner in Austin who clerked for a Texas Supreme Court justice, unpacks the updated rule with hosts Todd Smith and Jody Sanders . Together, they examine what the Supreme Court changed for the better from the pro...

In this episode, hosts Todd Smith and Jody Sanders share their list of crowdsourced “pet issues” that appellate courts could address to make practitioners' lives easier. Their goals, Todd explains, are to both identify areas for improvement and also to give them an opportunity to flesh out those topics in later episodes. If you’re a practitioner with thoughts about everything from modernizing the...

In this episode, we examine Texas’s permissive appeals statute and the rulemaking process that shapes how it operates in practice. To guide the discussion, hosts Todd Smith and Jody Sanders welcome Rich Phillips of Holland & Knight, who serves on the Texas Supreme Court Advisory Committee and recently presented a paper on permissive appeals . Rich pulls back the curtain on how procedural rules...

The Texas Supreme Court is taking comments on its rewritten summary judgment Rule 166a before the rule goes into effect on March 1. To help practitioners understand its implications, hosts Jody Sanders and Todd Smith provide context for the rewrite and take a deep dive into the rule’s requirements. Tune in as they break down, among other details, how the rule defines traditional and no-evidence su...

Keep your brief to 10,000 words, and you'll get more investment from Texas appellate justices. Those are just a few words of wisdom from Justice David Gunn in this conversation with hosts Todd Smith and Jody Sanders . After a clerkship, where he observed lawyers making mistakes and judges making decisions, Justice Gunn spent over three decades in private practice before joining the First Court of...

When an appellate lawyer puts a client in touch with Court Surety Bond Agency , the client is in a tough spot. “They’re going to be facing a verdict, an adverse verdict, or it’s just entered, and they're coming to us because they need to post a bond” to stay judgment enforcement during appeal, says Arturo Ayala , the company’s vice president. In this conversation with hosts Todd Smith and Jody San...

The Texas Supreme Court is on the verge of eliminating the practice of requesting merits briefs before granting petitions for review—a change that will fundamentally reshape how the high court handles cases. In this deep dive into Misc. Docket No. 25-9092 , hosts Todd Smith and Jody Sanders break down the proposed rule changes, which aim to make the process quicker, more efficient, and less costly...

When he started his solo appellate practice in Louisiana, Tad Bartlett had to educate trial lawyers about the utility of having an appellate attorney on their team. Today, 18 attorneys are certified appellate specialists through the Louisiana Board of Legal Specialization . “It’s nice to know when I sit in a room with the other 17, these are really well vetted, well qualified, highly experienced a...

Building a law practice from scratch requires finding your tribe and embracing the paradigm of giving, says KC Ashmore of Ashmore & Ashmore Law Firm in Rockwall, Texas. The Coast Guard veteran transformed his military service ethic into legal practice success through veteran outreach, Habitat for Humanity builds, and active participation in bar associations such as the Texas Bar College. KC sh...

The basic concept – that appellate lawyers face an existential crisis – came to Kevin Dubose in a dream. In this thought-provoking episode, hosts Todd Smith and Jody Sanders welcome Kevin back to the show to explore this concept and potential solutions to the unique challenges appellate lawyers face. Kevin shares insights from his recent paper , including the unique pressures in this practice area...

The world of public defense is traditionally challenged by limited resources. Appellate practice carries weighty time demands. Now comes AI—a disrupting force that can solve those problems and bridge the justice gap, says Joe Stephens. His insights come from several roles, including as chief public defender for the Caprock Regional Public Defender Office , consultant for Steno , a court reporting...

The marketplace may know Counsel Press as printers, but “we’re a lot more than that,” says Vincent Wiscovitch , senior appellate counsel. “We like to refer to ourselves as ‘appellate support providers,’ because anybody can be a printer. You could go to Staples and get a brief printed.” Counsel Press goes far beyond Staples, as Vincent and colleague Janet Bennett , appellate counsel, explain. From...

"If everyone can take out the fancy words from their language, we would all do better—law students and seasoned professionals alike." That observation comes from Christina Crozier , clinical assistant professor at the University of Houston Law Center and of counsel at Haynes Boone . In this conversation with hosts Todd Smith and Jody Sanders , Christina reveals four simple hacks that can improve l...

“We live in crazy times" is a phrase we hear a lot these days, Dr. Bill Chriss observes in this milestone 150th episode with hosts Todd Smith and Jody Sanders . But not the craziest America has ever seen. Drawing from his Law Day presentation, Bill examines how the nation’s founding fathers—particularly Madison and Washington—foresaw the dangers of political factions and built safeguards to protec...

“There's never any point at which I would have to say, ‘Well, I'm only going to do trial work now’ or ‘I'm only going to do appellate work,’” Dylan Russell says. He can straddle that line because, as he explains to hosts Todd Smith and Jody Sanders , “I just like the law so much that I think about it all the time.” In this conversation, Dylan discusses why he maintains both trial and appellate ski...

"I give trial lawyers a menu of options," Andrew Gould explains to hosts Todd Smith and Jody Sanders about his strategic approach as head of appellate at plaintiffs' firm Arnold & Itkin . After building their appellate practice from scratch following his years as a federal prosecutor, Andrew shares battle-tested techniques for navigating the trial lawyer relationship. His "eyes-wide-open" phil...

Milo Bobbitt built an appellate practice from scratch at his firm. After an internship with then-Justice Willett at the Texas Supreme Court, he successfully defended a significant oil and gas contract victory on appeal, complete with a quote from the movie “Armageddon” in the opinion. "I was writing a new brief about every month for eight months straight," Milo recalls to hosts Todd Smith and Jody...

In this milestone episode, hosts Todd Smith and Jody Sanders celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Texas Appellate Law podcast. Reflecting on 145 episodes of conversations with judges, practitioners, and legal innovators, they discuss how the podcast has evolved alongside major shifts in legal practice—from the pandemic's acceleration of virtual proceedings to the emergence of AI in legal work. T...