Monday, March 21, 2022

Holocaust Hero Saved over 600 Children


A graduate of the University of Washington, Noah Genatossio is currently a legal assistant at Colvin & Hallett in Seattle. He also served as a campaign intern for Bill Bryant for Governor and a diamond summer intern at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Additionally, Noah Genatossio is interested in history and taught Holocaust history at the Temple Beth Am in North Seattle.

The Holocaust continues to remind people of the tragedies during the second world war. Fueled by anti-semitism, which represents hostility and hatred toward Jews, Hitler killed over 10 million people because of their race and political inclinations. During these events, multiple people tried to save people from concentration camps and lived to tell the stories, one of which is Johan van Hulst. Johan van Hulst was a dutch teacher who saved over 600 Jews children during the second world war.

While serving as a teacher at the Reformed Teachers’ Training College, Johan van Hulst turned the school into an anti-Nazi resistance center. Just across the school, in a theater, the Nazis were preparing a deportation center for Jews, and Johan van Hulst managed to smuggle children from the theater with the help of his colleagues by arranging cargo transports for food. Instead of food, the teacher hid and transported children out of Amsterdam, which was German-occupied at the time.

Friday, March 11, 2022

Strategies Against Criminal Charges



A resident of Seattle, Washington, Noah Genatossio is an alumnus of the University of Washington, where he majored in political science. He currently serves as a legal assistant at Colvin & Hallett, where he helps lawyers with criminal defense. For legal professionals like Noah Genatossio, part of their research involves finding information for defense strategies.

For a person to be convicted of a crime in the US, they have to be found guilty beyond reasonable doubt; as such, one of the most common defense strategies is to establish reasonable doubt. The lawyer’s objective is to find arguments for why the prosecutor’s claims are not viable. Some approaches they use include finding errors in police evidence or questioning a witness’ credibility and intention.

Another typically used defense is the alibi. If a lawyer can find and reveal evidence that showcases the fact that their client was somewhere else, doing something else during a crime, there is no basis upon which to accuse them. As such, all criminal charges are withdrawn.

Depending on the offense and the individual’s medical history, a lawyer may also consider an insanity plea. This is an option only when the defendant can produce psychiatric records that indicate that their actions were a result of not being able to tell right from wrong. If the court accepts this defense, the defendant does not receive jail time; instead, they undergo treatment at a psychiatric facility.

Friday, February 25, 2022

What is Foreign Policy?




A legal assistant at Colvin & Hallett in Seattle, Noah Genatossio graduated from the University of Washington with an undergraduate degree in political science and has worked in various fields over the years. Noah Genatossio’s professional interests include foreign policy.

Foreign policy refers to a country or state entity’s activities and objectives concerning its interactions with other nations, political entities, and non-state actors. These policies primarily protect the country’s national interests, which its government can carry out through diplomatic or aggressive means. A country’s foreign minister, head of government, or equivalent party is responsible for making foreign policy decisions. They also meet with the leaders of other countries to resolve international issues through diplomacy.

Furthermore, decision-makers usually structure foreign policies to support their country’s main goals, such as economic, social, and political agendas. Some objectives might include maintaining global security, fostering world peace, promoting human-rights principles, enhancing foreign trade, or cultivating a balance of power among nations.

Tuesday, February 15, 2022

Defense Strategies to Criminal Charges



Noah Genatossio serves as a legal assistant at the Seattle-based firm Colvin & Hallett, which he joined after earning a bachelor of arts in political science from the University of Washington. Noah Genatossio also maintains an interest in criminal defense.

In criminal cases that go to trial, defense attorneys employ various strategies depending on their client’s plea. Some of the primary criminal-defense categories include the following:

Insanity
In an insanity defense, the defense attorney aims to persuade the jury that the defendant’s mental state served as the driving force behind the crime and typically involves the testimony of psychiatrists, who attempt to explain how the defendant’s state of mind at the time of the offense impacts their culpability. Calls to revise the insanity defense to a plea of “guilty but mentally ill” have emerged.

Self-Defense
A self-defense plea refers to the use of excessive or lethal force to defend one’s life. Whether or not a person intended to harm the victim, self-defense is justifiable. All that matters with this plea is whether or not the individual perceived the posed or assumed harm in the same way a “reasonable person” would. During a trial, the attorney of a defendant claiming self-defense endeavors to prove that their client killed or injured the victim to protect themselves from the victim’s violent threats.

Innocence
As simple as this plea may appear, asserting innocence of criminal charges requires much time and effort to develop a defense strategy. This approach might entail presenting evidence demonstrating that the defendant is incapable of committing the crime in question or showing that they were not present when it occurred. Additionally, supporting evidence could include witness testimony or surveillance footage.

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 A Seattle paralegal, Noah Genatossio earned his degree in political science with a minor in history at the University of Washington. With a...