Author Archives: Mdrizzy

How to Get Away with Murder – Md Hossain

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LAW IN CULTURE PROJECT- ASSIGNMENT: PART TWO

        The source I have chosen for my Law in Culture Project is a show called How to Get Away with Murder, which is an American TV show that focuses on a group of law school students that are selected by their criminal defense professor/practicing attorney. This show is a fictional legal drama that depicts many aspects of a lawyer, paralegals, how law firms function, and how the court system works. The show How to Get Away with Murder starts with Annalise Keating, who is the lead actor and a top criminal defense attorney who has her own firm. She is also a law professor at Middleton Law University. This show is very relatable to me personally because of the aspects of how life may be in a law school as a student. Professor Annalise Keating taught courses to the freshmen who entered as the first year, and every 4 years she selects 5 students she calls the “Keating 5,” and they were Wes, Asher, Connor, Mikaela, and Laurel. In Annalise Keating’s firm, she works with Bonnie and Frank, who are her paralegals, and helps with casework. The student and her paralegals help Annalise with many cases as each episode in this show presents a new case. As a college student majoring in BS in Science and Paralegal Studies, the casework helped me understand how important a paralegal’s job is because they assist attorneys with all legal litigation, research, and jury handling, among other things.

 

         As a defense attorney, Annalise depended on her paralegals and students who were picked to help her out with cases. In this show, there were many examples of the tasks of legal and service work. Bonnie and the Keating 5 pick witnesses and juries, do background research, analytical research, draft papers, and provide the proper legal treatises and statutes. For example, in Season 6, Annalise Keating defends an identically named wrongful death lawsuit, Lahey v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Taking on a death row client is nearly impossible to defend in light of unfair trials for prisoners of color and oppressed ethnic black communities who committed the same type of crime. Knowing the statistics, Annalise still argues for Mr. Lahey, which leads to an appeal of her decision to not only fight for her defendant but also take a petition for the prison system and oppressed ethnic black communities that get unfair trials or have to wait for trials for a long period of time. Annalise and her assistance from Bonnie and the Keating 5 helped her draft a writ of certiorari (we learned that in class! Now that I know what that is and how it works) and her legal reasonings as to why she is not happy with the decision, they aid her with all the facts that were presented in this case, the legal reviews, witnesses, and evidence, but also with a public petition to show that it is an important jurisdiction that needs to be changed. Bonnie and Keating 5 received signs of prisoners who shared their concerns. This show truly shows how the court system works and how paralegals and attorneys coexist in a legal work environment. Without the help of Annalise, she would not only win a case that the US Supreme Court hears and the writ of certiorari drafted by her law firm, she would win legal litigation, not just that one in particular but every case in any jurisdiction.

        Watching this show really helped me focus on my decision to become a paralegal and eventually study to become a licensed attorney. In reality, the courts and how they’re handled by judges and attorneys are completely different, but the work behind the cases is the same; it takes hours of hard work and efficiency. This class helped me understand the authorities a paralegal cannot do and is able to do. It’s completely different from a lawyer, who studied law and has proper jurisdiction and qualifications to practice law. I did not know the difference between watching “How to Get Away with Murder” and the role of Bonnie, who was a paralegal. I thought they were the same. I truly hope I can one day be in Annalise’s shoes, defending people who are in need.

Timekeeping!

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This is how I spent my day on Friday, October 21, 2022, from 7 PM-  12 PM

It was my birthday. I was getting ready for dinner, did my skincare, and put on my dry-cleaned formal outfit.-1.0

It took a while to get to Manhattan due to traffic, and finally, we came to our destination, Le Coucou, where we waited to be seated with our reservation.-0.50 

We Picked our food course and decided to go with 7 meal course, food kept coming and my family decided to experiment and try out new food such as escargot (Snail) and Les cuisses de Grenouille (Frog Leg), they all tasted like chicken surprise.-1.0 

It took a while for us to finish our entire 7-course meal. We waited for our desserts and came in singing “Happy Birthday Shamir” randomly, and I was caught in shock. Awaited was a beautiful chocolate mousse cake for all of us to devour.-1.0  

We cut the cake and enjoyed ourselves. We paid the bill for our fantastic service for the night and started to get ready to depart back home.-0.25

We waited for the valet for our vehicle. There wasn’t any traffic this time, so the home route was concise.-0.25

I arrived home and waited for another surprise. It was a baby kitten. So now I have a cat. It was truly an amazing gift, and I opened my other stuff, and I truly appreciate my family for this moment.-0.50

We all changed into comfortable clothing and decided to end our night by watching a horror movie and monitoring the baby kitten, who was only 3 weeks old. The best night of my life!-0.50

It was an eventful day. I turned 20 years old, and it’s such a scary thought. I reflected on so much of my life yet to date and set myself new goals in life to accomplish and to become more self-sufficient. This assignment is a great example to use as a template. It organizes time so well, and that is a major skill asset required to be an attorney or paralegal in the future; it helps with clients, evidence, research, and analytical problems.

Law in Culture!

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The source I have chosen for my Law in Culture Project is a show called How to Get Away with Murder, which is an American TV show that focuses on a group of law school students their criminal defense professor selects/a practicing attorney, who is known as Annalise Keating, for her fierce and strong black woman with tremendous power effects in the courtroom. The show deals with new cases and involves their personal issues as well. I want to focus on the cases that they deal with and how the law school students who are at the top of their class help Annalise with her subject jurisdiction in the Criminal Court. I chose this show in particular because it really portrays the background and all the analytical research, communications, assisting the attorney with witnesses, drafting statements, and many more. It’s a great example and correlation to my major being a paralegal and how the legal duties occur in a firm and in a court. I also recommend anyone to watch this show because it really is interesting. The student and professor, Annalise Keating, end up killing someone, and they try to protect each other and find an alibi to be proven innocent. In this show, not only do you have great examples of paralegal duties, but you also understand how our legal system works and state-wide jurisdiction. You see many examples of disparities in mass incarceration in the black community and how they’re treated differently. Professor Annalise takes a Death Row case as the defender and takes it to the Supreme Court of the United States. It’s on Netflix, by the way!

Law Office

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          The law firm that I have chosen to apply to work for would be Moumita Rahman, PLLC, located at 111 John St, Suite 1260, New York, NY 10038. This firm, in particular, helps families or individuals who are immigrants or have issues with their status. Moumita’s Law Firm focuses on clients all over the country and represents them at USCIS and in Immigration Court with cases that deal with VAWA self-petition, VAWA for parents, I-751 Removal of Conditions, I-751 Waivers, Affirmative Asylum, and family-based cases. She has 30 professional advisors and expertise that help her with the cases each client brings. That includes paralegals, legal advisors, and assistants. She also has a media and research team and many more. I would personally love to work with Moumita Rahman and her intellectual advocates that assist her. They focus on immigration and help families gain legal status in this country, so they also get the opportunity that this country is built on the fundamentals of the American dream. I relate to Moumita Rahman because she is also from Bangladesh herself and an immigrant, just like me. We both understand the obstacles it took for us as individuals and our families. Immigrants have always been discriminated against racially and abused by our system. It’s a constant stigma to not have legal status and I’ve seen families and friends struggle to live a comfortable life and be in constant fear of deportation. I also believe in her advocacy and fighting for families with immigration problems so they’re not separated and give up on their hard work and dreams.

Who I Am

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      Hello, I’m Md Shamir Hossain, the youngest son in my family who are immigrant from Bangladesh to this foreign country. Growing up, I always struggled with cultural assimilation. My family migrated to the United States when I was just 9 years old. When I came to the States, I was introduced to many barriers; food, language, garments that I would only see in Hollywood movies, not in my conservative country, and how diverse it is. At such a young age, I was faced with many adversaries. I had to constantly change my persona to fit in or adapt to a new environment. Because of my differences, I would often get looked at or judged with racial remarks or stereotypes, but I would not let that get to me but instead, I would embrace my cultural heritage because it’s something I’m proud of and it’s not something I can use a shroud to cover up, it is who I am and my roots. My parents never forced me to pursue anything other than what I was interested in, but ironically, I chose a legal career. I always knew I would become a physician assistant since 9th grade. I dedicated my entire high school year to volunteering at clinics and hospitals. In fact, my current occupation is being a caretaker for the elderly, but I’ve lost so many family members during COVID-19 that now hospitals scare me. I’m very spontaneous at the moment. Of course, I researched and I have always been told that I would make a good lawyer simply because I’m very good at arguing and demanding what I want. I’m very vocal and not shy about sharing my perspectives of what’s wrong or right.

      My career plan is to graduate from college with my Bachelor’s in Paralegal Studies and then pursue Law School to get my practicing license eventually. In this work field, I want to focus on immigration. I want to represent low-income families or clients who are in need of any humanitarian relief or have issues with their naturalization status. In our legal system, there’s always been a balance with injustices, and it’s spoken too often about issues like; deportation centers separating families and children who are too young to even understand what’s happening; inconsistent safety issues that families face; sanitary issues that many are victims of being dehumanized. I’m privileged that I never experienced this situation nor my family, but that doesn’t mean it does not involve you. Everyone deserves basic human rights, and I would stand up for anyone who is a victim.

      Something I want you to know about me is that I had a good summer. I traveled alone with some friends, and I visited Canada, Nevada, California, Utah, and Arizona. It was definitely an experience I won’t forget. I love traveling and trying out new things. Over the summer I went hiking in the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park’s Angel Landing. It was so scary and full of adrenaline experience. I almost died, but it was worth the pictures and videos. I can’t wait for next summer because I plan on visiting Alaska to see the Northern Lights, and then around Europe with my Mom. It’s one of our bucket lists from the show “The Gilmore Girls.”