March 2020 Hello! In This Issue: Executive Director's Message Volunteer Inspiring Pro Bono - Professor Stacey-Rae Simcox, Esq. Women's History Month TVC Pro Bono Legal Clinic for Women Veterans TVC Volunteer Wins Grand-Slam Settlement For Veteran Welcome Our New TVC Team Member Alternative Spring Break Interns Notable News
Executive Director's Message Like most businesses and organizations dealing with the onset of COVID-19, we find ourselves conducting our work remotely, which is mostly a matter of creating procedures and processes to ensure that business continuation takes place. This is certainly a challenge, but achievable with solid leadership, good communication and a spirit of creativity for thinking differently. TVC continues to fully support the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims and our other mission areas. We are exploring various ways to continue to support our trainings and weekly/monthly pro bono legal clinics. We have significant opportunities for our Mission Partners and members of our TVC National Volunteer Corps to support our CAVC and Discharge Upgrade caseload. Please reach out to Courtney Smith (CAVC) or Danica Gonzalves (DU) to volunteer your time. Despite the current climate, this month featured the launch of our monthly Pro Bono Legal Clinic for Women Veterans at the Washington DC VA Medical Center (DC VAMC). We piloted this initiative back in the fall of 2019 during Pro Bono Week and the significant turnout proved there is a real need for this service. Our Director of Communications & Outreach, Claudia Daley, was the driving force behind this successful effort, leading the way in developing key relationships with the Department of Veterans Affairs and the DC VAMC. Chris Tyson and Heidi Lunasin, from our Mission Partners at Duane Morris LLP, were also instrumental in the launch of the clinic.
In March, we have also been c e l e b r a t i n g Women’s History Month, highlighting the women veterans who have proudly served our nation through their military service. I also want to call attention to 29 March 2020, which is National Vietnam War Veterans Day, recognizing those who served and those who supported their soldiers at home. This day has a particularly personal connection to me, as my father was the Officer-inCharge of a HH-43 Huskie helicopter Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Service Detachment based out of Tan Son Nhut Air Base, Vietnam in 1967-68. My mom spent two years in Indialantic, Florida, raising three kids without much community aside from the other families of those that were deployed. Please reach out to those that served us during this war and thank them for their patriotism.
We welcomed aboard a new TVC team member, Anna Eaker, this week, although most of her onboarding occurred remotely. Anna will be one of our Client Services Specialists, handling our intake and helpline. Anna and her husband Brandon, who is in the U.S Army Reserves, just moved to the DC area from Missouri. We also want to offer our congratulations to one of TVC’s Executive Board Directors, Chanin Nuntavong, USMC (ret), on the news of his promotion to the position of Executive Director of Government and Veterans Affairs at the American Legion. One aspect of our current work situation is the cancellation of external events, symposiums, training sessions, panel opportunities, and the like. What we get in return is the time we would have taken from our schedules to support these activities. We intend to take a deep breath at TVC and think deeply on how we can improve or processes, content, collaborative effort and partnerships. We are always open to input and suggestions from our Mission Partners and supporters. Please feel comfortable reaching out to me personally if you think of something that can make us a better and more effective organization supporting our Veterans, their families, caregivers and survivors. Steve Jordon Executive Director #theyfoughtforus
Volunteer Inspiring Pro Bono (VIP)
Professor Stacey-Rae Simcox, Esq. TVC National Volunteer Corps Stetson University Law School
Our Volunteer Inspiring Pro Bono (VIP) for March is a nationally recognized advocate for veterans. She is a valued partner and member of our TVC National Volunteer Corps, whose contribution to the area of veteran’s law is immeasurable. Professor Stacey-Rae Simcox is responsible for inspiring a new generation of advocates and instilling the importance of serving veterans. Professor Simcox prepares law students to become effective and compassionate attorneys through interdisciplinary collaboration and pro bono advocacy. She empowers them to be a voice for veterans as law students, and in the future as attorneys. Professor Simcox served eight years in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Corps on active duty and in the U.S. Army Reserve. As a veteran, she brings a unique perspective to many of the challenges that our nation’s veterans face and a passion to fight for the benefits they’ve earned and deserve. Simcox is married to veteran Mark Matthews, who is also a valued member of our TVC National Volunteer Corps. The Veterans Consortium has had the pleasure of working with Professor Simcox since 2008, when she founded the nationally recognized Lewis B. Puller, Jr. Veterans Benefits Clinic at William & Mary Law School. TVC was a partner and contributor in the establishment of the clinic by providing training, screened cases, and a seed grant that allowed them to purchase their first secure server. Under Professor Simcox’s leadership as the Director, the Puller Clinic was recognized as a model for law schools serving veterans and was certified as a national best practice clinical program by the secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs. At the time it was established, the Puller Clinic was one of just five law school veterans clinics in the nation. Now there are over 40 active law school clinics. In 2014, Professor Simcox left William & Mary to become the Director of the then-fledgling Stetson University College of Law, Veterans Advocacy Clinic. Since taking over as Director, this clinic has become nationally recognized as one of the most successful in the country. Professor Simcox and her students
have served 92 clients, secured over $2 million in back pay for their clients with a $5.6 million projected increase in lifetime benefits. Each year, the clinic typically has 35-40 students participate in various capacities, with over 6,000 hours of pro bono legal work going into cases, from the students alone. “I have the best job in the world. I am privileged to help my fellow veterans every day and at the same time, light a fire in law students – the desire to use their new skills to help others in need,” says Professor Simcox. “It is the law students who work on The Veterans Consortium cases that make all the difference. Not only do they provide invaluable assistance to their veteran clients, but the students carry the lessons they learn forward and continue to provide that assistance when they become attorneys. They then train others on the importance of serving veterans, and on it goes. Watching law students learn while helping TVC is invigorating. I’m inspired by these students every day.” Professor Simcox’s students find her leadership and enthusiasm for teaching veterans law to be contagious and many have decided to practice in this area when they leave Stetson. Nine of her former students have gone into the JAG Corps and twenty-four are now practicing veterans law in some capacity. Current Stetson 3Ls, Vasilios Zimarakos and Morgan Maclsaac, have decided to practice veterans law upon graduation as well. “Professor Simcox’s mentorship and guidance has been instrumental in my law school career. Her passion, integrity, and transparency make her one of the most effective and respectable teachers I have ever had,” says Maclsaac. “Without her, I never would have realized my passion for veterans law.” “The Veterans Advocacy Clinic has been the most rewarding experience in my law school career. I have had the opportunity to work on 11 cases at the clinic under Professor Simcox, two of which were cases at the CAVC. Under her direction and oversight, I ‘won’ my first CAVC case. We received the case from The Veterans Consortium and achieved a Joint Motion for Remand following the Rule 33 conference. It was an invaluable experience,” says Zimarakos, a U.S. Army Veteran. “The Clinic that Professor Simcox runs is an absolutely fantastic experience for preparing law students to enter real-world practice. I look forward to building a career in veterans law.” Professor Simcox also teaches in the areas of veterans benefits law, administrative law, trusts and estates, and legal skills. She helped to establish a unique medical-legal partnership between Stetson University College of Law and the University of South Florida's Morsani College of Medicine, which allows medical students and faculty to collaborate with law students and faculty for the benefit of disabled veterans. Most recently, the clinic won a TVC case for a Vietnam veteran who filed his initial claim in 2007. The veteran was suffering from Multiple Sclerosis (MS) due to exposure to Cygon, an organophosphate insecticide. The VA denied his claims and several rounds of appeals because he wasn’t able to prove his exposure to Cygon, or that Cygon could cause MS. In 2017, the clinic received the case from TVC. Unfortunately, at this point the veteran was in a VA nursing home and unable to communicate and provide information due to his progressed MS condition. Ten students worked tirelessly
under the supervision of Professor Simcox. They were able to get his MS remanded for new medical examinations, found witnesses that had served with the veteran that could verify that his job did, in fact, require him to spray the insecticide, proving exposure. They worked with a neuropsychologist in the Neurology Department of University of South Florida, to get a review of the medical literature regarding organophosphates and potential causation relationship to MS. The team was able to win a remand for the veteran. The witness statements, medical opinion and medical research submitted by the students, rebutted the VA’s position that MS was not service connected. The team stayed with the remanded case to its conclusion and in September 2019, the VA granted the claim. To date, the veteran has received $640,000 in back payments to include all the nursing home fees his wife had paid for 12 years and was entitled to have refunded. “This case is just one example of Stacey-Rae’s leadership and ability to inspire her students to go the extra mile, think creatively, problem solve, and collaborate to achieve positive outcomes for our veterans,” says Judy Donegan, TVC’s Deputy Executive Director. “We know we can always count on the Veterans Advocacy Clinic at Stetson to take on the difficult cases and achieve positive results. Stacey-Rae is truly a Volunteer who Inspires Pro Bono.” One of our missions at The Veterans Consortium Pro Bono Program, is to encourage and facilitate pro bono representation of veterans, their loved ones, and their surviving family members through these law school clinical programs. We support these law clinic partners by providing “Clinic-in-a-Box” materials, by training clinical professors and participating law students. We provide them with screened pro bono cases, mentoring support and some grant opportunities. To learn more about our law school clinic program please, click below. Click Here
Women’s History Month: ​Celebrating Our Women Veterans
Since the United States first declared itself an independent nation, American women have found ways to serve their country despite resistance, sometimes going as far as impersonating male soldiers to join the fight at the frontlines. Women served when duty assignments and promotion potential were severely limited, when family responsibilities and military careers were not compatible, when they were not entitled to veteran’s benefits and when women who died in the line of duty were not entitled to military burial. Today, women are serving on the front lines in conflicts and as peace keepers around the globe. According to the Department of Defense, women now make up 20% of the Air Force, 19% of the Navy, 15% of the Army and almost 9% of the Marine Corps. Women veterans are the fastest growing demographic - now close to 11% of the current veteran population. As the role of women in the military continues to expand, Women's History Month is the perfect time to recognize the thousands of women who fight to protect our country and who deserve our support when they return home. #shefoughtforustoo
TVC Launches the Pro Bono Legal Clinic for Women Veterans
Pictured l to r: Michael Heimall (Washington DC VA Medical Center Director), Lorraine Bell (Women Veterans Program Manager), Dick Hipolit (Deputy General Counsel, OGC), Alma Holley (RN Clinic Nurse Leader), William Hudson (Acting General Counsel of VA), Judy Donegan (Deputy Executive Director, The Veterans Consortium), Steve Jordon (Executive Director, TVC)
On Tuesday, March 10, The Veterans Consortium launched the Pro Bono Legal Clinic for Women Veterans at the Washington, DC VA Medical Center (DC VAMC) in the Women’s Health Clinic. This new initiative is part of our standing Medical-Legal Partnership (MLP) with the DC VAMC. During May of 2017, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed by TVC, Neighborhood Legal Services Program (NLSP), and the DC VAMC to establish TVC’s Veterans Pro Bono Legal Clinic in the Transition & Care Management Center (TCM) at the DC VAMC. Although the clinic is well utilized by veterans, it was clear to our staff and volunteers that women veterans were not accessing this free resource in the numbers that we would have expected. In October of 2019, as part of a Pro Bono Week initiative, we decided to host a pilot legal clinic for women veterans in the Women’s Health Clinic at the DC VAMC, staffed only by women attorneys. This would allow women to seek out legal services without having to leave the safe environment of the Clinic. The Women’s Health Clinic is a space exclusively for women and staffed by female providers. It is a “safe space” where women veterans feel protected from sexual harassment and other inappropriate behavior by men. The pilot clinic was very well received. We served 20 women veterans that day and it was clear that we needed to provide this service on a regular basis, in a space were women veterans were more likely to engage, share their experiences and seek out resources.
Working closely with the leadership of the Women’s Health Clinic, our Mission Partners at Duane Morris LLP, and with the overwhelming support from the General Counsel of the Department of Veterans Affairs, we launched the Monthly Pro Bono Legal Clinic for Women Veterans- the fourth such clinic in our nation. This was a team effort and a great example of collaboration and the social impact of Medical-Legal Partnerships. We hope that this clinic will become a template for others around the country. The Clinic will be held the second Tuesday of each month from 3:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. Appointments are encouraged but walk-ins are welcome. If you are interested in volunteering at this clinic, please contact Caitlin Ens at caitlin.ens@vetsprobono.org. Unfortunately, due to this challenging time and the impact of COVID-19, we are unable to staff an in-person legal clinic, but we are working together to come up with a format to provide referrals and resources to those in need. We look forward to resuming the legal clinic hours as soon as possible.
TVC Volunteer Wins Grand-Slam Settlement For Veteran By Ty Collier, TVC Staff Attorney For 75 years, Lou Gehrig was the king of grand slams. He hit a record 23 before his major league career was ended by his now-namesake disease. Today, he’s widely regarded as one of baseball’s all-time greats.[1] As it happens, last month, a member of our TVC National Volunteer Corps scored a ninth-inning grand slam à la Lou Gehrig. It’s a story worth telling. But, to tell it right, it’s appropriate to start with the Veteran. On 22 August 2017, the Veteran —who had served in the Army Reserve — began seeking service connection for Lou Gehrig’s disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS). The Regional Office denied the Veteran’s claim. The Rating Decision said, “[w]e did not find that you had active, continuous service for 90 days or more to qualify for the presumption of service connection.” For background, a breakthrough study in 2006 established a cause-and-effect relation between military service and ALS. Based on that study, in 2008 VA introduced a new regulation, which provided that, if the veteran met certain requirements, service connection would be presumed.[2] One qualification was that the veteran had to prove “at least 90 consecutive days” of active service. At issue in this Veteran’s case was a notation in his DD-214, which said that he had been “ORDERED FOR 6-MO ACDUTRA,” [six months’ active duty for training]. The problem was that the Court had stressed in 2013 that the ALS presumption “excludes those who have served on active duty for training regardless of the length of that service.” [3] Without more, as VA saw it, the Veteran was not eligible for the ALS presumption. The Regional Office issued its decision on 21 November 2017 and, on 11 December, the Veteran appealed to the Board. On appeal, the Board also said that “the appellant’s military records reflect that the six-month period in question was a designated period of ACDUTRA.” Ultimately, the Board found that “the appellant does not have veteran status for VA compensation purposes and the presumption of service connection for ALS does not apply.” However, in its statement of “reasons and bases,” the Board grossly oversimplified the nature of the Veteran’s reserve service and improperly conflated VA and Army terms. Here’s how the Veteran, in his own words, described his experience: “In July of 1958, I was called to active duty at Ft. Belvoir, VA, as a [Second Lieutenant] in the [Army] Corps of Engineers. My first 8 weeks of active duty was spent at EOBC (Engineer Officer Basic Course), for formal Officer training,” and that, “Upon graduation from EOBC, I was assigned to the 86 Engineer Combat Battalion at Fort Dix . . . for approximately 4 months.” In addition, according to the Veteran, “While at Ft. Dix, at no time was I ‘in training’…I volunteered to lead a road construction project” and “I was responsible for the design, and construction of this all-weather road project starting in September and completing it later that year.”
By the time the Board denied the Veteran’s claim, 5 April 2019, well over a year had passed since the date of the Veteran’s Notice of Disagreement. On 25 June, the Veteran appealed to the Court. Meanwhile, time, for the Veteran, was running out. Lou Gehrig’s disease, according to VA,[4] “is often relentlessly progressive and almost always fatal. . . The median survival period for people with ALS is 3 years from the onset of symptoms, and most people with ALS die from respiratory failure within 5 years." To VA’s credit, although it had twice denied the Veteran’s claim, it had worked much faster than the Veteran might have expected going in, at least considering the following observation from a VA news release from 2016: “The current appeals process is complicated and ineffective, and Veterans on average are waiting about 5 years for a final decision on an appeal that reaches the Board of Veterans’ Appeals, with thousands waiting much longer.” [5] Still, what consolation could it have been to the Veteran to have gotten two expedited denials? At last, however, some good news. After the Veteran submitted his Notice of Appeal to the Court, he sought the help of The Veterans Consortium Pro Bono Program, who, in turn, recruited solo practitioner and volunteer attorney, Nick Phinney, to represent him. In his opening brief, Phinney laid out the legal arguments in expert fashion. Just two days after the filing of the brief, VA offered to settle. According to the Stipulated Agreement, as of the date of this writing, VA “concedes that Appellant meets the threshold service requirements to qualify as a ‘Veteran’,” and “further agrees to grant Appellant entitlement to service connection for [ALS].” In VA benefits law, “the tie goes to the runner.” But, make no mistake: this is not old-school sandlot baseball. At TVC, volunteer attorneys do major-league work.
Welcome Our New TVC Team Member ANNA EAKER Anna Eaker serves as a Client Services Specialist. In this role, she corresponds with potential and existing clients, helping them work through the steps of the US CAVC appeals process. Anna is a graduate of St. Louis University (MA in American Studies, 2018), University College London (MA in Comparative Literature, 2014), and the University of Baltimore (BA in English Literature, 2012). While at St. Louis University, she was a Media and Communications Intern at the holistic civil rights law firm ArchCity Defenders.
“There are many veterans in my life, including my husband and my parents. I am thrilled to be working for a nonprofit that directly aids veterans.”
ALTERNATIVE SPRING BREAK INTERNS: LEGAL SCHOLARS PROGRAM
To fulfill our mission to encourage local law students to participate in veterans law, we operate The Veterans Consortium Legal Scholars Program. This effort introduces law students to the federal Veterans Pro Bono Program and exposes them to careers serving veterans and their families, caregivers, and survivors .
SHUO WANG
Shuo Wang came to TVC for the 2020 Alternative Spring Break from Georgetown University Law Center. Shuo, who holds a Bachelor's Degree in Law & Accounting from the University of International Business & Economics in China, plans to graduate from GLC in May 2020. After interning at O’Melveny Myers LLP and Dentons Law Offices in their Beijing Offices, Shuo became interested in volunteer work, which led her to TVC.
"I believe that in every country, veterans are the people who deserve the biggest extent of respect."
CHRISTINA HIGGINS Christina Higgins is a 3L at Georgetown University Law Center. Originally from Los Angeles, CA, she became interested in Veterans' Rights as an undergrad at UC Berkeley, where she earned her degree in 2015. At Georgetown, she is the Vice President of the Black Law Students Association, senior notes editor on the Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy, and is also a student attorney in the Social Enterprise & Nonprofit Law Clinic. Previously, Christina has worked a t Covington & Burling LLP as a summer associate. Upon graduating in May, she will return to Covington as a 1st year associate. "Volunteering at The Veteran's Consortium provided me with an opportunity not only to learn more about the barriers that Veterans face, but to also make a real impact in the lives of those that have selflessly fought for our country."
EDWARD PREVOST Ed Prevost is currently at Georgetown University Law Center, where he is a 4E. Originally from Manassas, VA, he became interested in Veterans’ Rights while serving in the United States Air Force. Ed received his bachelor ’s degree from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University and a graduate certificate from Indiana University. In March 2020, Ed finished eight-years of Active Duty service in the Air Force. In the fall, Ed will be joining Latham & Watkins’ Banking Group in New York City. "After my time in the Air Force, I decided to volunteer because I wanted to continue serving and helping people in any way I could."
NOTABLE NEWS TVC Executive Board Member Promoted at American Legion
Upcoming Training Information REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN Thursday, 30 April 2020 Carlton Fields Miami Tower 100 S.E. Second Street Suite 4200 Miami, FL 33131
Please join us in congratulating TVC Executive Board Member, Chanin Nuntavong who has been named as the Executive Director of Government and Veterans Affairs for The American Legion. Click Here to Read More
Click Here to Register
Partner with us & sponsor a U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims Appellate Advocacy Training
Available Pro Bono CAVC Cases for our current TVC National Volunteer CorpsSM
Click below to view our list of Available Pro Bono Cases in need of representation by a volunteer attorney.
Contact Us At: volunteer@vetsprobono.org
Do you know a Veteran in crisis?
*Note: you must be a current volunteer who has taken our training and has been approved as a member on our website in order to log in and view the available cases. CLICK HERE
For assistance, email volunteer@vetsprobono.org
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