Last summer, an ad hoc committee made up of three court of appeals justices, two lawyers who work for courts, six prosecutors who work in post-conviction matters, including one assistant attorney general, and five defense lawyers petitioned TBLS to create a speciality for lawyers who do appeals and other post-conviction proceedings.

A lot of work went into the project, as agreement on many major issues was not easily reached. Ultimately, a petition was submitted on September 29, 2006. The application was endorsed by 243 other judges, prosecutors, and defense lawyers.

As proposed by the committee, "criminal appellate" practice will include practice, in criminal cases, before the following courts:

(a) United States Supreme Court;

(b) United States Circuit Courts of Appeal;

(c) Texas Supreme Court in Juvenile adjudication cases;

(d) Texas Court of Criminal Appeals;

(e) Texas Courts of Appeals;

(f) Texas District Courts exercising post-conviction habeas corpus jurisdiction under Article V �8, Texas Constitution, or Articles 11.07, 11.071 or 11.072, Code of Criminal Procedure;

(g) United States District Courts exercising post-conviction habeas corpus jurisdiction under 28 USC �2254 or 28 USC �2255; and

(h) Statutory Texas county courts sitting as Courts of Appeals in cases under Title II, Chapter 30, Government Code or exercising post-conviction habeas corpus jurisdiction under Article V �16, Texas Constitution, or Article 11.072, Code of Criminal procedure.

TBLS has agreed to create the speciality and will be posting the proposed standards for public comment very soon. They will be conducting a public hearing on the matter towards the end of April.

The idea and most of the organization of this proposal came from a criminal defense attorney -- David Schulman. Thanks, David, for getting it moving.

John, thanks for the update. I had not heard the news yet. As one of the prosecutors on the committee, I also want to recognize David for spearheading what was an enormous task. The idea has been perculating for years, but David was the one that really made it happen. David put in a tremendous amount of work and made it very easy for the rest of us to comment and make suggestions. I am thrilled that he has been rewarded for all his hard work. It is a privilege to have worked with him on the project.

JAS

Has anyone else considered the existing irony: that full-time criminal appellate attorneys are "too specialized to specialize?" Credit to Betty Marshall, former Assistant State Prosecuting Attorney, who came up for line over a decade ago when I appealed the State Bar's denial of a waiver for the present criminal specialty.

JAS