We outline a theory for conduction electron-spin resonance (CESR) in highly oriented pyrolytic graphite. The fundamental approximation is to treat the spin-orbit interaction as an effective field. In this approach, the shift in the g factor, which is associated with the mean value of the field, is related to the orbital susceptibility of the electrons. The linewidth comes from fluctuations in the effective field caused by the scattering of the electrons. The theory is used to interpret our CESR measurements.