The [La. State Bar Association] House of Delegates has approved the formation of the Appellate Section.

The members will meet and communicate via an electronic discussion group. All members will be automatically subscribed to this listserve. The first order of business there will be to come up with an appellate-advocate light-bulb joke.

The section will ask every member to make a small scholarly contribution to the listserve once a year, even if it is just an educational war story from her practice or a few remarks about a recent decision or court rule.

In slow months for appellate-practice developments, we may use our Recent Developments section of the Bar Journal to puncture some cherished legal-writing shibboleths.  We promise this will be excruciating. Stay tuned.

"It was interesting to open it up and say, 'Gosh, we do share so much,'" said Stigall, who earned his law degree at Louisiana State University and spent six months working with Iraq's courts last year.