Years ago, during a Webex merits hearing, my mentor walked into the room, looked at my screen, and wrote on a sticky note:
YOU ARE LOSING. MAKE SURE TO GET EVERYTHING IN THE RECORD.
We weren't even close to the end of the hearing.
I trusted her judgment. From that moment on, I made sure not only that every one of my arguments made it into the record, but that the Immigration Judge and DHS committed theirs to the record too.
She was right.
I lost before the Immigration Judge, but won before the Board of Immigration Appeals, won again before the next Immigration Judge, and today that client is living somewhere safe with her partner.
It's been six years since then. I'm now two years into my solo practice, without anyone looking over my shoulder to catch my mistakes. We don't have the luxury of making them anymore.
Over the past year alone, I've had to file more than fifty appellate briefs. I had to adapt quickly to the changing approaches of the Board and the circuit courts, often in real time while trying to protect my clients.
Somewhere along the way, I realized my method of writing had changed.
This series grew out of months of notes, analysis, revisions, frustration, and elimination of ideas that didn't survive the record, not because I expect to win every appeal, but because I want every client's brief to be the strongest brief I know how to write.
Most appellate resources teach you how to write a brief.
This series teaches you how to read a record.
Every Teaching Case reconstructs a real appeal, decision by decision, from the certified record to the final filed brief, including the drafting decisions, abandoned arguments, and editorial reasoning in between. Each one teaches a single mental model that you can carry into your next appeal.
I also tried to make it fun by giving each type of appeal a theme, using my favorite singers and lyrics! If you're a Swiftie, you'll probably catch a few references. If you're not, don't worry, the appellate lessons still work.
If this entire series isn't in your budget right now, that's completely okay.
You don't have to buy or learn everything at once.
Each Teaching Case is available individually because every appeal presents different problems. Start with the lesson that matches the case in front of you today, or build the complete Record-Driven BIA Appeal Method over time
Years ago, during a Webex merits hearing, my mentor walked into the room, looked at my screen, and wrote on a sticky note:
YOU ARE LOSING. MAKE SURE TO GET EVERYTHING IN THE RECORD.
We weren't even close to the end of the hearing.
I trusted her judgment. From that moment on, I made sure not only that every one of my arguments made it into the record, but that the Immigration Judge and DHS committed theirs to the record too.
She was right.
I lost before the Immigration Judge, but won before the Board of Immigration Appeals, won again before the next Immigration Judge, and today that client is living somewhere safe with her partner.
It's been six years since then. I'm now two years into my solo practice, without anyone looking over my shoulder to catch my mistakes. We don't have the luxury of making them anymore.
Over the past year alone, I've had to file more than fifty appellate briefs. I had to adapt quickly to the changing approaches of the Board and the circuit courts, often in real time while trying to protect my clients.
Somewhere along the way, I realized my method of writing had changed.
This series grew out of months of notes, analysis, revisions, frustration, and elimination of ideas that didn't survive the record, not because I expect to win every appeal, but because I want every client's brief to be the strongest brief I know how to write.
Most appellate resources teach you how to write a brief.
This series teaches you how to read a record.
Every Teaching Case reconstructs a real appeal, decision by decision, from the certified record to the final filed brief, including the drafting decisions, abandoned arguments, and editorial reasoning in between. Each one teaches a single mental model that you can carry into your next appeal.
I also tried to make it fun by giving each type of appeal a theme, using my favorite singers and lyrics! If you're a Swiftie, you'll probably catch a few references. If you're not, don't worry, the appellate lessons still work.
If this entire series isn't in your budget right now, that's completely okay.
You don't have to buy or learn everything at once.
Each Teaching Case is available individually because every appeal presents different problems. Start with the lesson that matches the case in front of you today, or build the complete Record-Driven BIA Appeal Method over time
