Art of Advocacy: Appeals

The late Marshall Houts wrote prolifically on law and medicine. He was the original author of Lawyers' Guide to Medical Proof; Courtroom Medicine: Death; Proving Medical Diagnosis and Prognosis; The Rules of Evidence; Cyclopedia of Sudden, Violent and Unexplained Death; Art of Advocacy: Appeals; Art of Advocacy: Cross-Examination of Medical Experts; and others. His book "Where Death Delights" was credited with inspiring the television series "Quincy, M.E." The series, about a Los Angeles County medical examiner who did his own detective work, starred Jack Klugman and ran from 1976 to 1983. Mr. Houts was an F.B.I. agent in Brazil and Cuba before shifting to the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency, during World War II. He was born in Chattanooga, Tenn., the son of a Methodist minister. He graduated from Brevard College in North Carolina and the University of Minnesota Law School. Mr. Houts worked as a lawyer and a municipal-court judge in Minnesota and then in Los Angeles. He taught law at U.C.L.A., Michigan State University and Pepperdine University, and forensic pathology in the medical school at the University of California at Irvine.

The late Honorable Walter Rogosheske served 38 years as a judge, 20 of them on the Minnesota Supreme Court, and six years as a Republican legislator. The Senior Justice was a trial judge and served as chairman of a committee of the American Bar Association that set standards for prosecutors and defense attorneys. He went to school at St. Cloud State Teachers College and Valparaiso University in Indiana before going to the University of Minnesota Law School where he taught Trial Jurisprudence and Appellate Jurisprudence.

Diane B. Bratvold is a shareholder of the law firm Briggs & Morgan, PA and a member of the Appellate Practice Group. Diane graduated with honors from the University of Minnesota Law School where she was a Note and Comment Editor for the Minnesota Law Review. After law school, she practiced for thirteen years at a law firm specializing in product liability and complex litigation and handled cases in many different federal and state jurisdictions, focusing on appeals and motions. Since 2001 Diane established a broad-based appellate practice. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers and involved in the DRI Appellate Advocacy Committee, where she serves as Vice Chair of that committee and Vice Chair of the DRI Amicus Committee. Diane is Past Chair for the Minnesota State Bar Association Appellate Practice Section and President of the Eighth Circuit Bar Association. She teaches appellate advocacy at the University of St. Thomas Law School and authors The Art of Advocacy: Appeals, a Matthew Bender Publication.

After graduating cum laude from William Mitchell College of Law in 1976, Eric Magnuson clerked for the Chief Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court, the Honorable Robert J. Sheran. He joined Briggs and Morgan in 2007 after practicing nearly 30 years with another Twin Cities law firm, where he was successful in establishing a broad-based appellate practice. He served as the 21st Chief Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court 2008-2010. After his tenure on the court, Eric rejoined Briggs' Business Litigation Section, as a member of the firm's Appellate Practice Group. Eric is a fellow and past president of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, founding president of the Eighth Circuit Bar Association, and an active appellate practitioner. He has been involved in hundreds of appellate cases in state and federal courts across the country. He has also written and taught extensively on issues of appellate law. Eric is admitted to practice in Minnesota state and federal courts; the U.S. Court of Federal Claims; the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th and Federal Circuit Courts of Appeals; and the U.S. Supreme Court.