{"60":"2021-02-16","61":{"first":"Asaad Waleed Mudhafar","last":"Alnakshabandi"},"62":"fb21ir3@amideast.org","63":"202-776-9665","64":{"street":"2025 M St NW Ste 600","street2":"","city":"Washington","state":"DC","zip":"20036","country":"United States"},"191":"LLM American","66":"I have a few motives for pursuing this degree. One reason that influenced me to pursue this degree is that during my academic years at the university, I was inspired by one of the professors who was a graduate of an LLM program from the United States. His methods were new and dissimilar to the other professors. For that reason, I used to always visit the professor at his office to learn about how legal systems in other countries function, and particularly the legal system in the United States. All of which inspired me to visit the university library during my free time to read legal books and discover areas of the law we were not exposed to in our curriculum. Additionally, after graduating with honors, it gave me an opportunity to work as a lawyer and paralegal at a law firm in my city. Throughout my legal work experience, and volunteering as a lawyer with several local and international humanitarian organizations, I have observed that many humanitarian organizations here in Iraq tend to depend on foreign legal advisors to manage their work or projects. Instead of depending on the locals who are more aware of the demographics of Iraq, and who are not less qualified. However, that can be rather difficult because not many lawyers are able to communicate in the English language, let alone having the ability to work as international lawyers or legal consultants for these international entities. The main reason is that we do not have any institutions in Iraq that provide law programs like the one offered by Widener Delaware Law School because the study language of the law in Iraq is Arabic. As a result, this creates a chasm of communication between the lawyers and these humanitarian organizations. That compels them to employ foreign legal advisors and not benefit from the expertise of our lawyers. Therefore, I have decided to pursue this degree because I can see myself benefiting on a career level, as well as help in the development process in my country due to the many opportunities that this degree would offer. I believe with this degree I can excel in my career as a lawyer in Iraq and also contribute to improving the current plight in my country through my field of work, especially, at this critical stage, as we are finally recovering from mass destruction caused by major conflicts.  ","67":"I think this is a tremendous opportunity to pursue an LLM degree at your prestigious university. I chose Widener Delaware Law school because it offers a program that is designed for foreign lawyers such as myself, who are coming from a different education system, different school of thought, and have a different legal practice than the one in the United States. Unlike other LLM programs, the two-year-program has numerous benefits for foreign lawyers because it introduces us to the American legal system while focusing on building, as well as improving, our legal English to ensure that we succeed and fully benefit from the LLM experience. Moreover, the program allows us to design the curriculum to suit our desired career goals. Also, offering a number of opportunities to such as internships, practical experiences, or taking extra summer classes during the summer season. For all of the above, I decided to apply to Delaware Law School because it is a perfect choice for achieving my career goals.","68":"","69":"With this degree, my options in Iraq would be limitless. I aim to use my degree to the fullest. This degree can be employed in many areas. I can use this degree to work with international\/local humanitarian organizations, or with corporations by working as a lawyer, legal advisor, mediator, or an arbitrator in a conflict resolution process. I believe that I can make a noticeable impact using my degree in working with humanitarian organizations, especially to fill the gap between these organizations and the local lawyers who do not have experience in the area of international law, due to the fact they cannot communicate in the English language and therefore do not have the required knowledge to act as international lawyers. Furthermore, I can use this degree in education, as I have been promised by my university to teach there after graduating. I can use the knowledge that I would be receiving from this degree to help develop the curriculum and provide the students with contemporary knowledge that can be beneficial in their practical life. Ultimately, I want to utilize the knowledge I would be acquiring from my studies in the United States to educate the people about the law, since people in Iraq are often uneducated about the law, or the laws exist, but they are often superseded by traditions, customs, and tribal laws. I want to be able to attack existing bad practices of the law and create a contribution in the advocacy for justice and create a culture of accountability to the laws and make governments more accountable to us as we are to them. Finally, I am hoping to learn, grow, and come up with new methods to help me in my career and also in the development of my country through my area of expertise.","70":"My answer to this question interconnects with two experiences in my life. First, after I graduated with honors I had the opportunity to work as a lawyer at a law firm. However, I was anxious to meet the duties and rise to the standard that was expected from me. Due to the fact that in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, the official language is Kurdish, thus practicing law is in Kurdish, and I have studied law in Arabic. Therefore, it was quite challenging at first to learn the legal terminology in another language that I am not used to practicing law in. I had to teach myself how to litigate in the Kurdish language and present my clients in a court of law. That included attending court hearings, reviewing cases, and drafting documents in Kurdish. Nonetheless, I could say that I was fortunate because I worked under a great lawyer who was very patient and willing to convey his expertise to me. Hence, he encouraged me to study and try to improve myself on a daily basis. By shadowing senior lawyers in the firm, and seeking advice as well as resources to help me improve my legal terminology, I was able to stand in a court of law and advocate in a number of cases in a matter of a few months. As time went by, I wanted to give back to society. Consequently, I decided to use my legal knowledge to help the refugees who were coming from different parts of Iraq and Syria. It was something that I always aspired to do since I had empathy for the refugees\u2019 situation in Iraq because I, with my family, had to leave my birthplace Baghdad to move to a safer area to Erbil city, in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. I wanted to volunteer as a lawyer and give back to the people and provide as much as I could to improve their situation. As a result, I managed to convince the lawyers at the law firm to use our spare time and dedicate a few days or even a few hours during the week to give consultations or any other legal work to assist the refugees at refugee camps or the humanitarian organizations with any legal matter they needed. It also motivated other lawyers to join our firm to work voluntarily to help us in this initiative. I believe even the little work we did, made a positive impact on the refugees\u2019 lives. I feel very honored for being able to serve the people and I foresee myself continuing to do so in the future.","72":"Asaad Waleed Mudhafar Alnakshabandi"}