“Any conversing between the two of you will strictly involve this case.” She wobbled, steadying herself on a bookshelf.

I collected the entire Nelson file, which could have fit into a grocery cart, and lugged it to Matthew’s cubicle. “Happy reading,” I said, trying to make light of the situation. Matthew was frozen. I couldn’t blame him really. It’d taken me well over a month to get a grasp on the case.

“Look, just read these two briefs and my bench memo, and let’s plan to talk after that, OK?” I gave his arm a little squeeze. “It may actually be fun to have someone to go over this stuff with.”

He grabbed the pile and turned to page 1 of brief 1, eyes ballooning. “Yeah . . . fun.”

A quick Westlaw search elicited Drexel v. California. Although the third circuit was not bound by decisions from other circuits (it was bound only by the Supreme Court), appellate opinions from other parts of the country were nonetheless persuasive. And if judges from different circuits were at odds on the same or similar issues, the Supreme Court typically would step in to bring legal uniformity to the country. That, of course, meant that one court of appeals’ decision would be overturned. As judges fancied themselves infallible, being overturned meant a public declaration of error and was an inconceivable fate worse than death.

The facts of the Drexel case were astonishingly similar to those in the Nelson case. It dealt with a sleeping lawyer, one who failed to provide mitigation evidence during the trial and the sentencing. Yet, unlike Dell Nelson, Luther Drexel received a new hearing, because the ninth circuit found that his lawyer’s “glaring omissions undermined the very essence of the Sixth Amendment, thereby resulting in nothing short of a constitutional sin. In such cases, we are compelled to right the wrong committed by the court below.”

“Well? Did you find it? Is that it?” the judge screamed from behind her cluttered desk.

I clutched the opinion and approached the torture chamber. “Yes, I think I have—”

“Why is it that you always think you’ve done this or that? You have something that appears to be an opinion. Can’t you just say, I have it?” she growled, swatting at my hands.

It was a fair point—effective litigators were resolute. “I guess you’re right, Judge, I—”