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Stephen Feldman and Matt Sawchak Speak at Conference on Appellate Practice

Ellis Winters

Ellis & Winters


Stephen D. Feldman

Matthew W. Sawchak

Ellis & Winters partners Stephen Feldman and Matt Sawchak recently spoke at the North Carolina Bar Association Appellate Practice Section’s Annual Meeting. The event on October 2, 2015, was attended by about 100 judges, lawyers, and others.

Mr. Feldman, along with North Carolina Court of Appeals Judge Richard Dietz, presented a program on effective writing for appeals. The presentation featured insights and tips on how to write more effectively, what judges look for in appellate briefs, and how judges approach their decisions and opinions. A copy of Mr. Feldman’s manuscript for the program can be downloaded here.

Mr. Sawchak’ s presentation discussed ethical issues that arise during appeals.  Mr. Sawchak stressed how courts and clients benefit when lawyers apply ethical standards that go beyond what formal rules require.  The program outlined common appellate situations that generate ethical concerns and analyzed those situations through hypotheticals. Ellis & Winters lawyer Paul Cox helped prepare the presentation.

About Stephen Feldman

Stephen Feldman focuses his practice on complex business disputes, antitrust, and appeals.  Following law school at the University of Chicago, he clerked for the Honorable Pasco M. Bowman, II on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.  Mr. Feldman serves as chair of the American Bar Association’s Appellate Practice Committee, as vice-chair of the FDCC’s Appellate Section, and on the leadership of the North Carolina Bar Association’s Appellate Practice Section. He is in his third year of editing Per Curiam, the NCBA Appellate Section’s newsletter.

About Matt Sawchak

Matt Sawchak focuses his practice on business litigation, antitrust, and appeals. He is a North Carolina State Bar-certified specialist in appellate practice. For 2016, Best Lawyers in America lists Mr. Sawchak as its Raleigh appellate lawyer of the year.

Mr. Sawchak graduated with honors from Harvard University, where he was a National Merit Scholar. He earned his J.D. and LL.M. with honors from Duke Law School, where he was the editor-in-chief of the Duke Law Journal. He served as a law clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas when Justice Thomas served on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Before his judicial clerkship, he clerked in the Office of the Solicitor General of the United States.

October 15, 2015
Posted in  General