Preservation of Issues for Appellate Review at the Federal Level (Presented by the Federal Bar Association’s Richmond Chapter)

Federal appellate courts will not reach the merits of an issue that trial counsel failed to preserve — and the preservation rules governing motions in limine, Rule 50 motions, evidentiary objections, jury instruction challenges, and post-trial filings each carry their own traps, timing requirements, and specificity standards. The pressure of live trial advocacy makes mechanical compliance harder precisely when the stakes for getting it wrong are highest, and recent decisions from the federal courts of appeals continue to tighten what counts as adequate preservation, narrowing the gap between forfeiture, waiver, and plain error review. Trial lawyers who default to instinct rather than doctrine routinely surrender appellate arguments without realizing it, and appellate counsel inherit records that cannot support the issues the case actually presents. This program maps the analytical ground rules of preservation, walks the specific rules governing distinct trial pleadings and contexts, and supplies cheat sheets, scripts, and checklists for use at counsel table — including how to integrate embedded appellate counsel. Attendees will be able to build a trial record that survives appellate scrutiny rather than collapses under it.