Defeating 'briefer's remorse'

Law360 has Andrew Nichols' article The Key To Turning Solid Briefs Into Winning Briefs, which begins with a discussion of "briefer's remorse"--the insights gained during moot courts before oral argument. Why not unearth those gems in time to get into the briefing?

• Before you file, run your draft past people who haven't been drinking the Kool-Aid. We do this as litigators all the time in other contexts. Before a big trial, we do extensive jury research. Before a big oral argument, we hold multiple moot courts. Why wouldn't we do a variation of the same thing with our briefs, when so much rides on them?
• find some busy generalists of your own and invite their honest, systematic feedback. I'm not speaking here of recruiting actual judges, but rather lawyers — and especially litigators. Be sure that they know little to nothing about the case, so that, like the court, they're not tainted. And again, include in the mix people outside your area of law and your client's industry. Now give them a draft of your brief.
• Ask them to start with the writing. Does the argument unfold clearly in the table of contents? Are the main themes plain from Page 1? Does the prose carry the reader along, or does she have to keep backtracking to untangle hard sentences? Does the draft rely on industry jargon and obscure acronyms? Are the verbs vivid? Are the metaphors apt? Is it plain what you want the court to do? And the list goes on.