Appellate Practice

Litigated controversies are likely to result in appeals. As a result, it is in a client’s interest to have experienced appellate counsel involved at various stages in the process.  The goal of trial counsel is to persuade the jury or the judge to adopt a particular view of the evidence and the facts.  The objective of appellate counsel is to persuade the court to adopt a particular view of the law.  Because of this, retaining appellate counsel demands that you choose attorneys who remain up-to-date on precedent, splits in authority, the composition of our appellate benches, and the human intuition of momentum on issues of unsettled law.

TAM’s Appellate Practice group combines these qualities, lending expertise in long-range litigation strategy, handling appeals in state and federal courts both in cases in which we represented a party in the lower court, and in cases where we have been brought in specifically for our appellate proficiency.  TAM’s ability to handle review matters vertically, meaning at the trial defense and appellate level, delivers significant value to clients in achieving top-flight results while minimizing the exposure to “re-education” legal fees at the appellate level.

Since 2010, TAM attorneys have lead briefed, argued, and won scores of appellate cases in the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, the Colorado Supreme Court, the Colorado Court of Appeals, and the Industrial Claims Appeals Office.

TAM serves as appellate counsel for a wide variety of clients, representing a range of constitutional, statutory, and common law claims and defenses.  Clients trust our experienced appellate lawyers for their ability to review the record, determine viability of appeals, identify and brief relevant issues, and effectively argue before courts of review.  We have been attorneys of record on precedent-setting appellate matters since the firm’s inception, and continue with leading edge appellate work today.

We apply these qualities outside and inside our practice, too.  TAM’s trial counsel also turn to our appellate lawyers for advice on preserving the record and addressing complex legal issues arising in the trial court to set up successful post-trial appeals, regardless of which side our clients are on.

TAM’s appellate team consists of Shareholders J.B. Fairbanks, and Robert J. Zavaglia, Jr., Special Counsel Kathleen M. Byrne, and Special Counsel Carol L. Thomson.