Both Curhan and DeSisto have handled many appeals and appear before the 1st Circuit four or five times a year. So, Curhan said, the identity of the judges really doesn’t come into play once an experienced lawyer gets up at the podium and begins making a client’s case. And DeSisto said he didn’t prepare any differently than he normally does.

“You have to be prepared,” DeSisto said. And even when you are prepared, the judges can fire unexpected questions at your, so “you have to concentrate on the core issues,” he said.

When there is a need, federal judges from the Supreme Court, circuit courts and district courts can sit by designation on appellate courts such as the 1st Circuit, Deputy Circuit Executive Susan J. Goldberg has explained. And the 1st Circuit has been short-handed since Selya assumed senior status on Dec. 31, 2006, she said.

The 1st Circuit regularly uses visiting judges from other circuits and from district courts within the 1st Circuit, which includes Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and Puerto Rico. But the 1st Circuit has never had a visiting judge as well known as O’Connor, Goldberg said. Besides being the first female Supreme Court justice, O’Connor was for many years the pivotal vote on the high court, and she has traveled extensively, making her well known in other parts of the world, she noted.

O’Connor will hear arguments in another Rhode Island case Tuesday. Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald C. “Skip” Lockhart will argue for the federal government in a case involving Anthony Lipscomb, a Providence man who has been sentenced to 16 years and 3 months in prison for cocaine trafficking and firearms offenses.