Director and Supervising Counsel for the Hastings Appellate Project, Archer Norris partner Gary A. Watt and two 3rd year law students, Mara Boundy and Kelly Matayoshi, represented petitioner Eriberto Errera in a complex immigration case before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. On March 14, 2012, Ms. Boundy argued the matter before Circuit Judges Consuelo M. Callahan and Carlos T. Bea along with Judge Mark W. Bennett of the Northern District of Iowa, sitting by designation. The students’ work on the case included writing two merits briefs plus an amicus brief when the Ninth Circuit granted en banc review of a different subdivision of the same statutory scheme in a different case.
Although the Court recently ruled against Errera, Judge Bennett, joined by Circuit Judge Bea, wrote a concurrence specifically stating that the two would have ruled in Errera’s favor if not for questionable, recent Ninth Circuit precedent. The concurrence also praised the students’ work, stating that “Particular praise is due…to the law students who represented the petitioner Eriberto Errera. They navigated highly complex issues with passion and creativity, and they presented the best possible case they could for their client, both in their extensive briefing and at oral argument.”
In its first three years of existence, Gary's legal teams at the Hastings Appellate Project have obtained reversals in five out of seven Ninth Circuit decisions with one more decision pending. And the fourth year is well under way, with two opening briefs filed in September and a third to be filed in late October.