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That’s just one piece of advice offered by Seventh Circuit Judge Richard Posner in his turn at the ABA Section of Litigation’s “Tips from the Trenches” column, titled “Convincing a Federal Court of Appeals.” Attorneys who fail to take into account that the appellate judges are not specialists and have a limited time to deal with each case are making a mistake; a judge “depends on the lawyers to provide enough background in the field out of which the case emerges to orient” the judge.

Tip no. 2: don’t think you can win by “rubbing the judges’ noses in the precedents.”

This terrific column provides lots of practical advice, closing with an 8-item list of “do’s and don’ts” of oral argument.

Hat tip: How Appealing.