ABOUT

Trials are won or lost in the theater of a courtroom.  Thus, in a trial lawyer, you want a performer, someone who can, by force of speech, convince a jury of regular people that you are innocent. But appeals are won or lost on paper; they are almost exclusively decided based upon the written briefs of the parties.  Thus, in an appellate lawyer, you want an intellectual, someone who, with their writing, can convince a panel of academically-minded judges that your rights were violated and that you deserve a new trial as a result. These are two different kinds of lawyers with different skill sets, and you should be aware of this when hiring a lawyer for your appeal. 

As an appellate lawyer who specializes in criminal appeals, Jeff Walsh is first and foremost a student of the law.  He studies every week how the criminal law evolves (through opinions from the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court).  He also routinely studies how to improve his craft of writing and oral advocacy by watching and studying the work of the best appellate practitioners in the country.  Put simply, like the judges who decide your appeal, Mr. Walsh is an academic, an intellectual.  Also, like the judges who will decide your appeal, he is a product of rigorous academic institutions, where he was trained in the crafts of research, writing, and oral advocacy, which are the skills most important to being a good appellate lawyer. 

Mr. Walsh graduated at the top of his class from Williams College, which is the number one ranked liberal arts college in the nation, according to U.S. News and World Report.  He also graduated at the top of his class from the University of Michigan Law School, which is one of the highest ranked law schools in the nation, according to U.S. News and World Report.  Since school, Mr. Walsh has spent 19 years practicing criminal defense law and vindicating the rights of the accused.  His work has resulted in the exoneration of the wrongly convicted as well as the reversal of numerous convictions.