Overview

Shaw Lewenz’s Trial Support & Appeals Practice helps clients protect trial court victories, challenge adverse rulings, and position complex cases for success from the earliest stages of litigation through final appeal. In high-stakes disputes, the appellate record is built long before a notice of appeal is filed. The firm works with clients and trial teams—both within the firm and outside the firm—to identify legal issues and preserve evidentiary, legal, and factual objections, issues, and errors, to support appeals at every stage of litigation.

The practice is designed for matters where trial strategy and appellate strategy must work together. Shaw Lewenz assists with dispositive motions, injunction strategy, evidentiary issues, preservation of error, jury instructions, verdict forms, charge conferences, post-trial motions, stays, supersedeas bonds, writ proceedings, interlocutory appeals, and appeals from final judgments. The firm can serve as lead appellate counsel, embedded trial-support counsel, independent appellate counsel brought in after judgment, or “cold eyes” counsel retained to evaluate briefing, trial strategy, and appellate risk.

When the firm is engaged before or during trial, Shaw Lewenz works to help trial counsel prevent avoidable error, sharpen legal theories, create a clean record, and preserve key issues for review. When the firm is engaged after an adverse ruling or judgment, it conducts a disciplined assessment of the record, identifies the issues most likely to matter on appeal, and develops a briefing and argument strategy designed to persuade appellate judges.

Shaw Lewenz also helps clients defend favorable orders and judgments on appeal. Preserving a trial court win can require the same strategic intensity as seeking reversal: a clear understanding of appellate standards of review, a practical assessment of the record, and briefing that gives the appellate court a strong basis to affirm. Whether the objective is reversal, affirmance, emergency relief, or a negotiated resolution during appeal, Shaw Lewenz brings a trial-tested litigation perspective to appellate advocacy.

Cases We Handle

• Appeals from final judgments
• Appeals from dismissals, summary judgments, and dispositive orders
• Interlocutory appeals
• Emergency appellate motions and stay proceedings
• Petitions for writs of certiorari, mandamus, prohibition, and other extraordinary relief
• Appeals involving temporary and permanent injunctions
• Post-trial motions, rehearing motions, and motions for new trial
• Preservation of error and record-preservation strategy
• Trial support for high-stakes commercial, class action, securities, consumer, healthcare, insurance, real estate, and personal injury matters
• Dispositive motions and trial briefs
• Motions in limine and evidentiary issues
• Directed verdict and judgment as a matter of law motions
• Jury instructions, verdict forms, and charge conferences
• Bench trial findings of fact and conclusions of law
• Supersedeas bonds, appellate bonds, and judgment-enforcement issues during appeal
• Appellate jurisdiction, timeliness, and preservation analysis
• Appellate mediation and settlement strategy
• Amicus curiae briefs
• Motions for rehearing, rehearing en banc, clarification, certification, and written opinion
• Business and commercial appeals
• Partnership, shareholder, fiduciary duty, and corporate governance appeals
• Class action and mass action appeals, including appeals directed at certification or consolidation
• Consumer protection and deceptive trade practices appeals
• Securities, investment, and financial services appeals
• Healthcare and insurance appeals
• Real estate, construction, and restrictive covenant appeals
• Arbitration-related appeals and challenges to arbitration awards
• Trial team consultation and independent “cold eyes” review
• Oral argument preparation and mock argument sessions