Appellate counsel must follow COVID rules

Law360 reports Fed. Circ. Scolds Attys For Breaking COVID Rules recounting how:

• In a seven-page order filed Friday, a panel of judges for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit chided a group of attorneys representing a party in an appeal for blatantly violating the court's rules by bringing more lawyers into court than was necessary or approved.
• When the courthouse resumed in-person access for arguments in September, it put in place a mask mandate and restrictions on who could enter the building. Only an arguing lawyer and one other lawyer are allowed inside an oral argument.
• But a partner at a law firm, whom the appeal panel did not name, asked the court ahead of time if two more attorneys from the same firm could attend the argument. The court denied the motion two days before the hearing was scheduled. According to the panel, all four lawyers decided to try their luck anyway and enter the courthouse, planning to go to the court and ask if the "circumstances had changed."
• Shortly after entering the courtroom, having made it through security with the necessary paperwork, the two attorneys who were not permitted to attend were told to leave and eventually escorted out of the building. They were later referred to the court's panel on attorney discipline.