If you want to get better at oral argument, how do you do it? I recently had a big Third Circuit argument (link to the audio here, if you’re curious), so I’ve been puzzling over that question a lot. You can work harder to prepare for each individual argument, you can read books about oral advocacy, and you can practice not saying, “I try not to read that many cases, your Honor. . . . That’s why I wore a suit today,” like this fellow did. All helpful.
But one of the best ways to improve at oral argument is to listen critically to good arguments. It’s easy to find good Supreme Court arguments, but finding circuit arguments takes a bit more work. The Third Circuit posts audio of all of its arguments online (low-quality audio, alas), and video of a handful, but you have to know which cases to look for.
For this post, I’ve pulled together links to some Third Circuit oral arguments by some excellent oral advocates. (Plus one Supreme Court argument because I couldn’t bear to leave Judge Bibas out.) To be clear, this isn’t a list of the best Third Circuit arguments or advocates — for each one linked here, there are many others I could have included. But if you’re looking for model arguments from our circuit, I believe this list will get you off to a good start.
Future Third Circuit judges and Third Circuit nominees
Cheryl Krause — Mitchell Partners v. Irex Corp. — argument — opinion
Stephanos Bibas — Tapia v. US* — argument — transcript — opinion
Peter Phipps (also Ted Olson and Paul Clement) — NCAA v. Governor II (panel) — argument [he starts at 47:10] — opinion
Rebecca Haywood (vs. Lisa Freeland) — US v. Thompson — argument — opinion
* Supreme Court argument.
Former Third Circuit judges
John Gibbons — Gov’t of V.I. v. Lansdale — argument — opinion
Timothy Lewis (vs. Robert Zauzmer)– US v. Kemp — argument [he starts at 32:20] — opinion
Former solicitors general
Paul Clement, Ted Olson — NCAA v. Governor II (en banc) — argument — opinion
Neal Katyal — City of Philadelphia v. Attorney General — video — audio [he starts at 26:15]
Seth Waxman (vs. James Martin) — Avaya v. Telecom Labs — argument — opinion
Third Circuit Bar Association presidents
Chip Becker — L.R. vs. School Dist — argument [he starts at 16:10] — opinion
Lisa Freeland — In re: Hoffner — argument — opinion
Peter Goldberger — US v. Hird — video [he starts at 9:50, 37:50, and 43:00] — audio
James Martin — UGI Sunbury v. Permanent Easement — video
Nancy Winkelman — Huertero v. US — argument — opinion
Andrew Simpson — Sala v. Hawk — argument — opinion
Other Third Circuit advocates
Howard Bashman — A.S. v. Smithkline Beecham — argument — opinion
Ellen Brotman — US v. Richardson — argument — opinion
Ilana Eisenstein — US v. Cooper — argument [she starts at 13:13] — opinion
Jonathan Feinberg — US v. Bennett — argument — opinion
David Fine vs. Robert Zauzmer — US v. Rosario — argument
Arianna Freeman — Brown v. Superintendent — argument – opinion
Lisa Mathewson — US v. HIrd — video [she starts at 19:15] — audio
Bruce Merenstein — US v. Fattah — video [he starts at 19:00] — audio
Katherine Romano — Katz & Assocs. v. Concepts in Health — argument
Matthew Stiegler (me) — Reeves v. Fayette SCI — argument — opinion
Other advocates from outside the circuit
Michael Carvin — Ehrheart v. Verizon Wireless — audio [he starts at 11:35] — opinion
John Elwood — USA v. EME Homer — argument [he starts at 28:25] — opinion
Roy Englert — In re: Tribune Media — argument — opinion
Miguel Estrada — Crystallex Int’l v. Venezuela — video — audio — opinion
David Frederick — In re: Zoloft — argument — opinion
Deepak Gupta — In re: NFL Players Concussion Injury Litig. — argument [he starts at 21:25]– opinion
Alan Gura — Binderup v. AG — argument [he starts at 12:50] — opinion**
Orin Kerr — US v. Auernheimer — argument — opinion
Christopher Landau — In re: Jevic Holding — argument [starts at 14:20] — opinion
Patricia Millett — In re Nortel Networks — argument [starts at 28:10]– opinion
Andrew Pincus — DE Coalition v. Strine — argument — opinion
Carter Phillips — Gonzalez v. Owens Corning — argument [he starts at 20:10] — opinion
Tejinder Singh vs. Kannon Shanmugam — Sikkelee v. Precision Airmotive — argument — opinion
** The links are for the panel argument and the en banc opinion. Here is the en banc argument.