Often clients will ask me whether they should attend an oral argument. I usually tell clients that it’s not expected and may even be distracting to the court and the lawyers, but I never tell clients that they simply cannot attend oral argument.
An appellate colleague, Andy Korn, recently sent me a discussion of this very question, which I will upload for readers’ use. It’s interesting that former Supreme Court Justice Jackson actively discourages bringing clients to oral argument in all cases. In the future, I think I’ll share this document with my clients when they ask whether they should attend oral argument.