Law and Culture Review

For my law in culture review, I watched How to Get Away with Murder. This show was released on September 25, 2014 and lasted until May 14, 2020. It has six seasons and sixty episodes. It is about a brilliant defense attorney and part-time professor (Annalise Keating), who teaches criminal law or as she preferred to call it “How to get away with murder”. Every year she selects a group of her students to go and work with her at her law firm. The students who were chosen, worked for her as paralegals throughout the show while being investigated for high-profile cases in which they broke the law, but surprisingly got away with it.

The show is mostly about criminal cases; nevertheless, there are several scenarios that portrays what has been thought in our classes. For instance, the way the federal court system works. In our Civil Procedure class, we learned that Federal courts have two types of jurisdiction, federal question jurisdiction and diversity jurisdiction. On the show Annalise takes a class action lawsuit to the U.S. Supreme Court. In order to get there, the case had to meet the requirements (in this case federal question jurisdiction) which were violations to the 6 and 14 amendments, then Annalise had to go through to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, where she lost and finally appeal to U.S Supreme Court. They emphasized how the U.S Supreme Court only take 2% of the cases submitted, but she still submitted a writ of certiorari, which was granted. Other aspect that portrayed our classes specially Introduction to paralegal studies was the violation of the 3C’s confidentiality, competence and conflicts of interest. I cannot recall how many times they broke them, but I could see how it affected every case.

I would say the show has some scenarios that are not realistic at all; however, most of it did accurately portray what the law field is, for example the paralegals conducting research, interviewing witness, the consequences of violating ethical duties, lawyer arguing with each other on court and the court system. My favorite episode was Lahey v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania which is the one where Annalise goes to the U.S. Supreme Court. On this episode Olivia Pope from scandal (another TV show related to law) come alone and help Annalise with the class action lawsuit brought to the Supreme Court. I would definitely recommend this show, it is entertaining and a little bit addictive I would say.

Court Observation

Witnessing the arguments at the Appellate Division Second Department courthouse was a thrilling and unforgettable experience. We observed the judges perform their jobs with competence and firmness. The passive aggressive way they handled every appeal case was surreal, the Justices knew exactly what they were doing. Honestly, they could not be more prepared, I was astonished about the back and forth between attorneys and Judges, it felt just like a movie scene. I found surprising how the Judges kept track on every detail about those cases. Since those were appeals, I thought they were going to be more like general disputes.

Timekeeping

Tuesday 11/2-8:00-12:00

I went to the bathroom – .10

I had breakfast – .20

I joined the meeting for my English class – .90

I took my midterm English exam – .60

I ate lunch – .30

I joined to class  – .60

I took my second midterm exam – .30

I went back to class (biology class) – .30

I ate some snacks – . 25

I finished some homework -.45

total: 4.0

Reaction: What surprised me the most was how much time I spend eating. Moreover, from now on I will try to be quicker while eating so I can save some time.

Law Office

A law office I would like to work is UnLocal. UnLocal is a community-centered non-profit organization that provides direct immigration legal representation and community education to New York City’s undocumented immigrant communities. According to goggle  its mission is to address the fundamental injustices and structural inequities that disproportionately impact our communities. Their main goal is create a sustainable structures that build collective power and allow us to flourish.

Law and Culture Review

The source I’m choosing to use is a TV drama series called “How to Get Away with Murder”. Which is about a lawyer, part-time professor who decided to pick a few of her students to go and work with her at her law firm. It is law-themed TV show that explores many different scenarios, reviews previous depositions, decisions and outcomes of high profile cases with the purpose of teaching and preparing law students to litigate; it also takes class action for incarcerated Black people.

Who I am

Hi everyone, my name is Mirian Torres and the reason why I decided to apply to the Law and paralegal program is because I aspire to become a lawyer. I’m originally from Honduras, I arrived to the US about two years ago. Being a child who got to experience different scenarios where injustice was a constant in my life, got me to think it was because of the corrupt government, failed and obsolete system that is still used in my country, hence when I came to this country I did it with a lot of expectations, unfortunately upon entering the complex family and child wellness maze that is supposed to be in charge of protecting us I got to realize that even if the system is flawed there is always need for people trying to get the less fortunate a little bit of justice but it made see that there are also others who got into the law program just to manipulate and bent the laws in favor of those that cause harm. Being the latest the group of people I never want to be part of.

I expect this program can give me the tools I need to be part of a change in the system and I hope justice can always prevail and deliver hope to those that have known injustice for far too long.