The movie I decided to watch is one I have seen many times. The name is The Accused. Jodi Foster plays Ms.Tobias, a rape vicitim. Kelly McGillis plays assistant district attorney, Ms. Murphy. Murphy (McGillis) is assigned Ms.Tobias’s (Foster) case to prosecute the three men accused of raping Ms.Tobias. Murphy made a deal with the attorney’s of the men who raped Ms.Tobias to not go to trial due to her boss stating she, Murphy would lose the case based on Tobias being drunk and high and flirtatious on the night of the rape.

When Tobias learns of the deal made with the three men and her not being able to testify at a trial, she is enraged and accuses Murphy of selling her out. Murphy, feeling guilty finds a way to enable Tobias to tell her story in the trial of three men who solicited and encouraged the rape of Ms. Tobias. The deal offered the rapist was reckless endangerment which was 2-5 years which would be shortened to 9 months served in county jail. A friend of one of the rapists testified for Ms.Tobias and gave details of the rape and who all was present and how the three men on trial goaded the other three men to rape Ms.Tobias. The jury took three days to deliberate and found all three guilty and the three rapists got the maximum of their deal which was five years in federal prison.

I believe that law firms being able to advertise through social media or television or billboards is no different than a doctor, restaurant or retail store of some kind. Each law firm wants a prospective client to know what the firm has to offer and the advertisment lets them “shop around.”

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The movie that I chose to review was The Frim with the main character played by Tom Cruise. His character is Mitch McDeer. He is selected from a top law firm in Memphis, Tennessee during his last days at Harvard Law School. He was at the top of his class. He is attracted by the money that he brings in as a lawyer. The frim buys him a house and new car as an incentive to remain loyal to the frim. After passing his bar exam, he starts working longer hours. He then finds out that the frim deals with moving funds to offshore accounts for their clients.

                During a trip to the Cayman Islands, Mitch uncovers information about the clients that he works for in Chicago. During the trip, he is seduced by a local prostitute. This was a setup from the law firm security officer as a way to blackmail him. At this point he was approached by the FBI who stated that his law firm worked for The Mob in Chicago. McDeer uses his law knowledge to leverage his safety and get his brother out of jail. He discovered the frim was using padded bills to their customers. He figured the frim could be charged under RICO for this. This is how he gets back at the Frim for setting him up. Lastly he was able to get the information he needed from the Mob by using the client-attorney privilege. This kept his clients criminal actions safe but allowed him to get out of the frim.

          This story seem like it would be on the outskirts of reality. These events would be believable if it happened in real life but not common. I feel that television and movie depictions have shaped my own opinion on my views about law. This would only be because I did not have any personal experience working with lawyers or law firms up until recently. In reference to the application of advertisements done by law firms, I believe that it helps them have more reach to a potential client base. The local law firms here in Hawaii have clients give their personal testimonies of their experiences. I think this improves their perception to the general public. 

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