The California Appellate Law Podcast
The California Appellate Law Podcast
Latest Episodes
Students at the Lectern: Training Law Students by Letting Them Practice
Law students won a Ninth Circuit appeal on a broader theory than they argued. Now it’s en banc, and they have to defend the result, not the reasoning, in front of the judge who wrote the opinion.The case is King v. Villegas, and the stud...
Press Record: How Courts Are Already Rewriting Appeal Rights Under FVAP
Tim Kowal and Jeff Lewis discuss Family Violence Appellate Project v. Superior Court, the California Supreme Court's unanimous August 2026 decision holding that an indigent litigant unable to find or afford a court reporter is entitled...
No Associates, No Apologies: How CALG Flattened the Pyramid
Ben Feuer, chair of Complex Appellate Litigation Group, joins Tim and Jeff to discuss how CALG built a successful appellate firm by rejecting the traditional law firm pyramid entirely.CALG hires no associates and pays attorneys a percent...
2,000 Opinions Later: Justice Willhite on What Wins Appeals
Retired Associate Justice Thomas L. Willhite Jr. of the California Court of Appeal, Second District, Division Four, joins Tim Kowal and Jeff Lewis to discuss nearly four decades in the legal system, from coordinating capital appeals at the Cali...
Voluntary Dismissal, Involuntary Consequences: Maniago and the End of the Expedited-Appeal Shortcut
John Mitch Mitchell joins Tim Kowal to unpack Maniago v. Desert Cardiology Consultants’ Medical Group, a July 2026 California Supreme Court decision that shuts down a procedural shortcut California litigators have been relying on for y...
