Retired Justice Benke joins CALG

Today's DJS has Retired 4th District justice joins growing appellate boutique -- Retired justice Patricia D. Benke joined Complex Appellate Litigation Group, along with former Reed Smith partner Brian Sutherland and appellate specialist Michael von Loewenfeldt.

Law360 has Medtronic's Cautionary Tale Of Fed. Circ. Word Limits -- "The Federal Circuit's Medtronic decision will keep appellate lawyers up late at night. But it is also instructive."

The court considered the two sentences in Medtronic's brief to be "no argument" but rather "an improper incorporation by reference." In the court's view, Medtronic was attempting to circumvent the court's 14,000-word limit by seeking "to incorporate by reference twenty pages from another brief in another case, amounting to over 4,000 extra words." The court ruled that Medtronic had made strategic decisions about what material to include in its opening brief, and that it could not undo those decisions.