Willis: Anglo-American Law 
233 
Conclusion. A brief should close with a respectful sub- 
mission of the case to the court, with a request for reversal or 
affirmance, and with the name of counsel who appear on that 
side. 
Counsel should bear in mind that in a brief, as in diamonds, 
it is quality not quantity that counts. They are not paid, 
like fiction writers, at so much per word, but for the ideas 
they can transmit to paper. This applies not only to the 
argument but also to the statement of facts and of the ques- 
tions involved. If the appellate court clearly understands the 
facts and the questions the case may not need much argu- 
ment. Accuracy in citation and in argument should be a 
point of honor. The appellant should remember that upon 
him rests the burden of convincing the appellate court that 
reversible error was committed by the trial court, and that 
he cannot do this by general assertions; he must call any 
error to the attention of the court, point out why he thinks 
it is error, and give his reasons for thinking so. The appellee 
should correct any misstatements of facts in the appellant’s 
brief, or if he has not had a chance to examine it state the 
facts in his brief, and take up each point made by the appel- 
lant in the order named, analyzing and if possible refuting 
the authorities cited by him. A reply brief should be what 
its name indicates, and not some of the argument which should 
have been disclosed in the main brief. However, this does 
not mean that the appellant should in his main brief anticipate 
the arguments of his opponent. Both parties should remember 
that verbosity is not appropriate in a brief ; they should leave 
illustration and amplification for oral argument. 
We have now set forth fairly completely the technical rules 
for finding, reading, and briefing authorities — the oracles o^ 
the law — as they are found in the sibylline leaves of the 
myriads of law books found in a well-equipped law library; 
but we have said very little about the greatest rules which 
should guide the lawyer here as everywhere else in his prac- 
tice, and those are the moral rules of life. It is as important 
for a lawyer to put character as to put intellect into his work. 
In no profession are moral ideals and standards more im- 
portant than in that profession whose almost Godlike work 
is the administration of justice on earth. No attempt will be 
made to set forth the moral rules of life as they apply to the 
