IndyBar: Federal Practice in the Southern District of Indiana

By Donnie Morgan, Taft Stettinius & Hollister

Litigators begin each case with plenty to learn. New facts. A client’s strategic priorities. Perhaps a new area of substantive law, new industry or new government agency.

Because our clients’ disputes are not resolved by abstract AI platforms — at least not yet — thoughtful lawyers must also plan their cases for a particular audience. Studying local rules or a particular judge’s courtroom procedures might mean the difference between a process focused on the parties’ substantive disputes and a lawyer’s dented credibility — or worse. A particular federal circuit or state might take a distinctive approach to the substantive law. Even the resources available to a given judge can inform the best way to present your client’s case.

IndyBar has you covered. First, it asked me to share some of my own strategies when practicing in our own Southern District of Indiana. That may have you doubting the collective IndyBar wisdom. But it gets better. IndyBar is also hosting a full-day CLE exploring all aspects of federal practice in the Southern District. More on that later, but first a few tips.

1. Start with jurisdiction. All federal courts are courts of limited jurisdiction, and courts within the 7th Circuit are especially attentive to jurisdictional issues. Carefully consider how Article III’s standing, ripeness and mootness doctrines might impact your case. And don’t forget jurisdictional and prudential abstention doctrines.

2. Be aware of your audience, and be kind to your audience. When aiming to persuade, you should build every argument with its audience in mind. Judges in the federal system benefit from judicial law clerks and, in some cases, staff attorneys. You generally should expect a depth of preparation that may not be practical for even the most diligent judge in some other forum. Still, the Southern District has for years endured one of the heaviest caseloads in the country (measured by weighted filings per authorized judge). That means our judges and their law clerks are quite busy and shoulder an enormous daily reading burden. Whether in written or oral advocacy, you should endeavor to build the simplest, most straightforward path for deciding a case in your client’s favor. Whatever does not serve that end distracts from it.

3. Plan backward from relevant pattern jury instructions. The 7th Circuit publishes extensive civil, patent and criminal pattern jury instructions. Our judges tend to give those pattern instructions, meaning that in most cases the relevant pattern instructions will be all that a jury knows about the law governing your client’s case. You should review relevant patterns early in your case assessment and build your case around the information that jurors will need to find for your client. That exercise can also help you frame the issues at summary judgment.

4. Your magistrate judge is an asset. If you treat interactions with your magistrate as box-checking exercises, you’ll take little from them. But in my experience, our magistrates can be immensely helpful. They can help plan case-management issues in a way that minimizes unnecessary costs, help generate pragmatic alternatives to costly and distracting disputes, and ultimately help resolve cases. But it requires early and earnest collaboration with opposing counsel and with your magistrate. Shun knee-jerk posturing and rote box-checking.

5. Harness technology if you can. Is your judge likely to resolve a motion to dismiss construing the relevant contract before discovery closes? How often has your judge granted a preliminary injunction in First Amendment cases? Data-analysis platforms like Lex Machina can provide insights that may help form your strategy — or at least how you set expectations with your client. Other programs can automate citation hyperlinks that help judges and law clerks more easily access the authorities important to your argument. Programs like Brief Catch can help tighten up your prose and break bad writing habits.

These tips have served me well. But don’t take tips from me. Instead, mark your calendar from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. on Sept. 7 for IndyBar’s full-day CLE on federal practice in the Southern District. You’ll hear from Chief Judge Pratt, District Judges Magnus-Stinson and Hanlon, Magistrate Judges Baker, Barr, and Garcia, and Alison Chestovich from the Southern District Clerk’s Office. You can sign up by visiting indybar.org and clicking “Browse Events.”•

Donnie Morgan is senior counsel with Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP with experience at all levels of the federal and Indiana judicial systems — including work on appeals before the U.S. Supreme Court and the Indiana Supreme Court. He serves on the Indianapolis Bar Association Board of Directors.