September 2020 Hello! In This Issue: Executive Director's Corner 2020 Pro Bono Mission Partner Awardees Announced Volunteer Inspiring Pro Bono (VIP) - Lloyd Chee, Esq. Welcome Equal Justice Works Fellow, Chesley Roberts 2020 TVC Pro Bono Mission Partner Awards Sponsors K&L Gates Sponsors TVC Training Notable News
Executive Director's Corner We are five weeks away from our 2020 TVC Pro Bono Mission Partner Awards! This annual event is an opportunity for us to publicly thank our volunteers and mission partners for their support, as well as to reflect upon the good work that is being done to support the needs of our veterans and their loved ones. It is my pleasure to announce this year’s recipients of the TVC Pro Bono Mission Partner awards.
2020 TVC Law Firm Pro Bono Mission Partner Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe 2020 TVC Corporate Pro Bono Mission Partner Amazon.com
2020 TVC Chairman’s Award Valerie Daye, Esq.
Each of these TVC Mission Partners will be honored for their exceptional pro bono service in support of The Veterans Consortium and the veterans, their families, caregivers and survivors that we serve. Please join us virtually on October 29, 2020 at 6:00 P.M. to learn more about the contributions of our awardees. I also want to thank our very generous sponsors for their continued commitment to our mission. If you have not done so already, I hope that you will please consider a sponsorship. We know there are many demands on your resources and we appreciate your consideration. If you have any questions about sponsorships, please contact our Director of Communications and Development, Claudia Daley at claudia.daley@vetsprobono.org. September has been a very busy month for TVC. Last week we co-hosted a webinar with Georgetown Law's Center for National Security and the Law. During the one day webinar “All Hands On Deck: A Veterans Justice Imperative”, we explored racial injustice as it applies to VA characterization, military sexual assault and the ensuing trauma of reporting and retaliation, the inconsistencies in discharge characterizations and the need for reforms. We hope this will lead to further collaboration to find solutions to the critical issues discussed in this program. I want to thank all of the panelists and moderators for their participation and in particular, The Honorable Robert N. Davis for his insightful keynote address. The webinar was recorded and will be posted on our website as soon as it's available. I encourage you to watch it. We were pleased to have our newest TVC team member sign in for duty this month. Equal Justice Works Fellow, Chesley Roberts, will be exploring issues uniquely related to Women Veterans. Chesley’s fellowship will be sponsored by Lockheed Martin and we are very grateful to them for their support. We were also delighted to learn that our summer 2020 David Isbell Intern, Rina Hernández, was competitively selected into the U.S. Air Force JAG Corps. You can read more about Chesley and Rina further in this issue. We offer our sincere best wishes to Disabled American Veterans as they celebrate their centennial. DAV has been one of our nation’s leading Veteran Service Organizations, fulfilling the promises to the men and women they serve. DAV is also one of our founding organizations, and has continued to serve on our Executive Board, via long-standing Director Roy Spicer. Happy 100th Birthday, DAV, from your friends and partners at TVC!
Steve Jordon Executive Director
Volunteer Inspiring Pro Bono (VIP)
Lloyd Chee, Esq. Amazon.com TVC National Volunteer Corps
Our September Volunteer Inspiring Pro Bono (VIP, Lloyd Chee, is a Senior Corporate Counsel at Amazon. Lloyd has volunteered his time with TVC and recruited volunteer attorneys since he first took a case in 2018. Lloyd is a Captain in the U.S. Navy Reserve, which makes him an excellent mentor to his colleagues who represent veterans. After taking his first case, Lloyd worked with our team to organize several virtual trainings for Amazon attorneys, as well as an in-person training at their corporate headquarters in Seattle, Washington. This training was webcast to their international offices to promote our program and encourage pro bono representation for veterans. To date, twenty-three Amazon attorneys have worked with The Veterans Consortium on military discharge upgrade cases.
Lloyd has been selected as our September VIP due to his success with discharge upgrade cases, his efforts to increase pro bono participation with TVC at Amazon, and for mentoring and encouraging the other Amazon attorneys who participate. These efforts will have a profound impact on the lives of the veterans they assist, and the ability for them to receive the benefits and care they deserve. “ Lloyd is a pleasure to work with and is a major player in encouraging Amazon attorneys to take pro bono cases. We’ve had great success with the Amazon team because of his efforts and mentorship. This recognition is well deserved, and I look forward to our continued partnership”. Danica Gonzalves, Program Director TVC Discharge Upgrade Program
In 2018, Lloyd gathered a team of legal professionals at Amazon, all veterans themselves, and took on the discharge upgrade case for a U.S. Marine veteran who received an Other Than Honorable (OTH) discharge. This veteran had a strong record of service and had deployed to Iraq three times, receiving a combat meritorious promotion to Corporal. He was diagnosed with PTSD and TBI. As a result, he self-medicated with opioids prescribed to him for a surgery and had several incidents of non-judicial punishments (NJP), ultimately attempting suicide. Lloyd and his team combed through the record and produced a brief that showed that he had been an exemplary Marine, well decorated, with multiple
letters of accommodation and appreciation. His positive performance was illustrative of a Marine who had ably performed his duties and that his severe mental health conditions were a mitigating factor in the misconduct. Lloyd referred to the veteran’s records which clearly showed that he experienced severe stress related to his three combat tours in Iraq and had been diagnosed and treated for PTSD and TBI during service. It was also documented that he had undergone a surgery leading to an addiction to pain medications, as well as his struggle with his mother’s deteriorating health and ultimate death, which had related financial hardship. The team produced a thorough and well-crafted brief, which argued that all negative performance during his final years in service was traceable to his mental health conditions. Due to these factors and his exemplary service, the veteran’s discharge was upgraded to a General. As a result, this Marine can now say he was discharged under honorable conditions and take pride in his service. The Veterans Consortium is grateful to Lloyd Chee for his service to our country in uniform and as an advocate for those in need who served. We are grateful to have him on our team as part of our TVC National Volunteer Corps. “It’s been an honor and privilege to work with The Veterans Consortium. Many lawyers and legal professionals at Amazon want to help veterans, and with the excellent coordination and help of the TVC, we’ve been able to provide hundreds of hours of pro bono representation to well-deserving veterans. I am proud of our team and grateful for the tremendous support we’ve received from TVC. We look forward to continued collaboration on discharge upgrades and other opportunities to best support our veterans." Lloyd Chee, Senior Corporate Counsel Amazon.com
TVC Welcomes our 2020 Equal Justice Works Fellow, Chesley Roberts
We are excited to welcome Chesley Roberts as our newest Equal Justice Works Fellow. Chesley’s two-year project is being sponsored by Lockheed Martin and will focus on the legal needs of women veterans and the unique issues they face. Chesley’s project will also be to grow and support the recently launched TVC Pro Bono Legal Clinic for Women Veterans , which is held in the Washington, DC VA Medical Center’s Women’s Health Clinic (DC VAMC). This pro bono legal clinic for women veterans (one of only 3 in the nation) is exclusively for women veterans and staffed by female volunteer attorneys. Chesley will manage the clinic, provide direct legal services, and research and compile resources to navigate certain legal issues and other barriers that women veterans specifically face. Chesley will also work with our volunteer attorneys, law schools, and Veteran Service Organizations to further understand and address issues that impact the lives of female veterans. Today, there are two million women veterans who have served our nation. Women comprise the fastest growing subpopulation of both the military and veteran populations. We recognize our duty to this group of veterans and are committed proving equitable access to benefits and justice. We are grateful to Lockheed Martin for sponsoring this critical project and look forward to working with them to find areas where we can positively impact the care and legal services these veterans have earned.
2020 PRO BONO MISSION PARTNER AWARDS SPONSORS
FREEDOM
GUARDIAN
HONOR GUARD
VETERAN'S DEFENDER
Click Here To Become a 2020 Sponsor
K & L Gates LLP Hosts Nationwide Virtual TVC Training On September 9, attorneys from global law firm, K&L Gates LLP, attended a virtual training led by TVC’s Director of Volunteer Outreach & Education Courtney Smith. Our team collaborated with members of K&L Gates’ Pro Bono Committee, Rosemary Alito and Amy Groff, to organize this two-hour training that was webcast to other offices nationwide. TVC looks forward to a longlasting relationship with this law firm.
Welcome to the newest members our TVC National Volunteer Corps!
Here is a sneak peak at some behind the scenes photos from the production of our upcoming virtual event. We look forward to sharing the evening with you!
TVC Quote of the Month
“Please continue to provide your services as many of us could NEVER afford the aid of an attorney. I would have been lost and never gotten as far as I did without [my attorney’s] help!” TVC Client, U.S. Army/U.S. Navy Veteran
NOTABLE NEWS Former Isbell Intern Accepted in to U.S. Air Force JAG Corps
Do you know a Veteran in crisis?
On 9/23, TVC received the below email from our Summer 2020 David Isbell Intern, Rina Hernandez, from t h e University at Buffalo School of Law.
Hi all! I hope you're all doing well. I just wanted to reach out with some good news - yesterday, I was accepted into the Air Force JAG Corps. I truly believe Steve's wonderful letter of recommendation and my summer internship experience with TVC made a positive impact on my application. Thank you to you all and the rest of the TVC team for being so supportive this summer!
PASS IT ON The impact of your pro bono service is real and tangible for our veterans. Please share this video with those you think may be interested in volunteering.
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