Duane Morris Appellate Review

When is a 60-day deadline only 20 days?

If you google “How long to appeal arbitration order in California,” the AI Overview response looks something like this: “For court orders denying a petition to compel arbitration, you typically have 20 days to file a notice of appeal.” Using a more grammatical phrasing, if you google “How long does one have to appeal an arbitration order in California,” the result again is something like this: “Key deadlines for arbitration appeals in California: Denial of Motion to Compel Arbitration: 20 days to appeal an order dismissing or denying a petition to compel arbitration.” Similarly, googling “How long does one have to appeal an order denying arbitration order in California,” the AI Overview answer looks something like this: “In California, a notice of appeal regarding an order denying a petition to compel arbitration must typically be filed within 20 days after the superior court clerk or a party serves a ‘Notice of Entry’ of the order or a file-endorsed copy of the order.” (Note that googling these various queries, even verbatim, often returns slightly different phrasings.)

Read the full version of this month’s “Exceptionally Appealing” column from Partner Benjamin G. Shatz at the Daily Journal.

In this episode of the SideBar Advisors podcast, Duane Morris Partner, Seth Rokosky, shares how legal paths actually unfolded in real life—through a series of decisions, tradeoffs, and adjustments. Seth provides insight on his approach to career decisions, what it really takes to build a niche practice from the ground up, and how his background in competitive chess influences the way he thinks about strategy, risk, and decision-making.

Listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts.

By Thomas R. Newman

We had expected, in keeping with Chief Judge Wilson’s expressed hope in the 2023 Annual Report, that the court would continue to decide more appeals each year until eventually arriving at the over 200 yearly average total dispositions during the 22-year tenure of Chief Judges Kaye and Lippman. But that did not happen. The court decided only 119 appeals (79 civil and 40 criminal), down one from the 120 decided in 2024. We hope the court will increase its caseload this year.

Of the 79 civil appeals decided by the Court in 2025, the jurisdictional predicate for 39 (49%) was permission of the Court of Appeals, 18 (23%) permission of the Appellate Division, 14 (18%) dissents in the Appellate Division, and in 4 (0.5%) a constitutional question was involved. Appx. 4. Stipulations for judgment absolute under CPLR 5601(c) continue to be zero; a wise decision.

Read the full article from the New York Law Journal on the Duane Morris LLP website.

This article was co-authored with Steven J. Ahmuty, Jr.

Appellate mediation is widespread and has been a hot topic for ages now. Alternative dispute resolution, or ADR, providers expressly tout their appellate mediation programs (e.g., ADR Services, JAMS). Most California Court of Appeal districts have formal mediation programs: e.g., the 2nd District’s Mediation Program, the 3rd District’s Mediation Program, the 4th District’s Civil Mediation Program, the 5th District’s Mediation Program, and the 6th District’s Mediation Program. So do many federal Courts of Appeals. The 9th Circuit’s Mediation Program has been around for over 30 years and currently has a team of seven Circuit Mediators. Bucking the ubiquitous banal naming convention, the 2nd Circuit may send you to CAMP (its Civil Appeals Mediation Program). The ABA even published a 366-page treatise “Appellate Mediation: A Guidebook for Attorneys and Mediators” (ABA 2016) by California’s own Brendon Ishikawa and Dana Curtis (a former 9th Circuit Mediator). Yes, so very much can and has been said about appellate mediation. But what about appellate meditation?

Read the full version of this month’s “Exceptionally Appealing” column from Partner Benjamin G. Shatz at the Daily Journal.

Benjamin Shatz, a partner in the firm’s Los Angeles office, has been named as the next president of the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers.

The California Academy of Appellate Lawyers is the nation’s oldest lawyers’ organization dedicated to appellate practice. Its members are California lawyers with substantial appellate experience, who are elected to membership after rigorous scrutiny of their reputation, character and appellate advocacy skills.

Duane Morris Special Counsel Brian J. Slipakoff presented at the Pennsylvania Bar Institute’s 2026 Annual Environmental Law Forum on April 23, 2026 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Mr. Slipakoff and his co-presenter, Joshua Ash of the University of Pittsburgh Law School, had a lively discussion about the evolution of “universal” injunctions, their recent elimination by the United States Supreme Court and ways forward to achieve broad-based injunctive relief in the environmental legal space in the years to come.