Example Of A Time To Kill Movie Essay

Describe the role that Sandra Bullock played in the film, “A Time to kill”.

Sandra bullock plays the role of a young, determined and bright law student who offers her services to the defense lawyer for free. She plays her role as a paralegal effectively, sometimes going to extremes of breaking into an office to obtain evidence. She is determined to ensure that they win the case and her prior experience in a death penalty case comes in handy in defending Samuel Jackson.

​​2. How did Sandra Bullock’s character become a paralegal?

Sandra is a law student from Massachusetts and a member of the American Civil Liberties Union, she volunteers her services to Mathew McConaughey (Samuel Jackson’s lawyer), who though reluctant at firm agrees to have her on board, and that is how she ended up as a paralegal. ​​3. What type of paralegal was Bullock’s character?
She is a criminal law paralegal whereby she assists the defense lawyer to gather all information for the case​​4. What was her role as a paralegal?
Like any other paralegal criminal law paralegals perform similar tasks with other paralegals such as filling, research, paper work, interviewing witnesses, corresponding with clients and generally help to build the cases. In the movie, she is very helpful in obtaining evidence, though sometimes she uses extreme measures like breaking into an office. To some point her actions overshadows the defense lawyer except that he gender works against her and the director makes her to be kidnapped so that Matthew can regain his lead role. Her services are very significant during selection of jury members. ​​5. What area of law did the character played by Matthew McConaughey, practice?

Criminal law whereby he has chosen to represent street people on pro bono basis,

6. How did Bullocks character assist the character played by Samuel Jackson?
Samuel Jackson has no remorse for his actions, but Bullock must convince him to alter this outlook so they can convince the jury that he is not guilty.
7. Identify any violations of attorney ethics or National Federation of Paralegal Associations, Inc. Model Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility and Guidelines for Enforcement in the film?
The attorney-client protects the attorney from relaying any information to a third party. However, Mathew seems to have violate this privilege when he discusses their conversation with Samuel Jackson from the scene where Samuel suggested that he would do something drastic since he was not sure justice would be possible to the rapists. Of course, this is debatable because of the crime-fraud exception clause that requires an attorney to disclose information that he/she thinks would cause more harm. Furthermore, the issue of confidentiality creates a dilemma to the lawyer because it is difficult to judge when to tell or not to tell. However, in this conversation between the attorney and the client, the lawyer has a vague idea that the client intent to kill the rapist, but he does not report it, therefore he fails to fulfill the professional responsibility.

Work Cited

A Time to Kill. Dir. Joel Schumacher. Warner Bros, 1996. DVD.