Best. Appellate. Advocacy. Anecdote. Ever?

Yesterday morning, I argued an appeal in a relatively minor criminal case -- involving the liability of a corporate officer for posting of signs not in compliance with the Los Angeles Municipal Code, which is exactly as riveting an issue as it sounds unless, of course, you are yourself the defendant or a fellow such as myself who enjoys wrestling with fine evidentiary distinctions -- before the Appellate Division of the Los Angeles Superior Court.  I was not trial counsel in the case, so I have had to make do with a Record I Never Made.  It was perfectly clear from the outset -- actually, from the moment I read the Court's tentative ruling -- that the Court is inclined to go against me on this one.  Still, the judges were entirely civil about it as they heard me out, and I gave them the best shot I was able within the bounds of the facts and the law that I had been dealt.

All of which is by way of mere prelude to this:

My appellate appearance yesterday was as nothing compared to that of Norm Pattis of Crime & Federalism today, in which he was bloodied before the Second Circuit.

[UPDATE 031306: Thanks to whoever it may have been (not me) who submitted this post for possible inclusion in this week's Blawg Review #48, hosted at Rethink(IP).  Why, I don't even mind that the Rethinkers elected to shunt it off to the appendix.   It is an honor just to have been Rethought of, isn't it?  Indeed it is.]