Thursday May 15, 2008

I returned just a few days ago from Miami, Florida, the ninth stop on our national tour to assist veterans. (Previous stops have included San Antonio, Austin, Houston, Pensacola, Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville, and Atlanta.) Each week, we fly down anywhere from three to six students to wherever our Mobile Law Office happens to be, so the students can spend the week assisting veterans with their federal benefits claims.

The response has been truly overwhelming. In each city, UDM provides an educational session for veterans to learn about the federal benefits process. After that session comes nearly two full days of individual benefits interviews in which veterans can sit down with students, faculty and local pro bono attorneys to discuss their own particular cases. Finally, UDM provides a full-day training session for local attorneys in how to handle federal veterans benefits cases pro bono.

On a nationwide level (including both our national tour and our Michigan tour), the faculty and students of our veterans clinic have now met with about 2000 veterans, and trained more than 100 local attorneys to assist them pro bono.

As Dean at University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, I have been particularly touched by several things. First, the gratitude that is expressed by the veterans is truly amazing. They are so pleased that someone is listening to them and offering to help. Second, the response from local attorneys in numerous states continues to gather strength, and our students have had a great opportunity to interact with local attorneys around the nation.

Third, I cannot begin to express the pride I have taken as I have watched our students in action with these veterans. They have shown a real dedication as well as tremendous skill in dealing with our veterans clinic clients. I have very much enjoyed watching our students as they give the veterans educational presentations, as they interview the clients, prepare case summaries, and do much more.

On a personal level, it has also been great fun as Dean to be traveling with students in different cities (and everyone who has been on the tour so far now can attest to my continuing search with our students for the best ice cream in whatever locality we happen to be visiting).

And as Dean I am particularly pleased that our students are witnessing first hand in places all around the country how one can use the law to help people. That is something that you just cannot communicate solely in the classroom.

I could fill many pages with the stories of the veterans that our students and faculty have met so far, in places throughout Michigan, Florida, Georgia, and Texas. Here are just a few:

There’s the fellow who was at Pearl Harbor and still has not received benefits for a back injury he sustained there. There’s the veteran who was exposed to Agent Orange while serving in Vietnam, for whom we have been able to increase his benefits from $300 per month to $2600 per month. There are the parents of the Persian Gulf War veteran who were so touched that we would listen to their son’s problems that they actually gave us a thank you card. There’s the Iraq veteran suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or the other Iraq veteran suffering from a serious brain injury. And then there’s the veteran we met in Houston whose leg was amputated as a result of diabetes caused by Agent Orange exposure – he came to ask us for help, the local press focused on his story, and the next day he heard from the V.A. that he would be receiving more than $90,000 in benefits.

What happens now? Well, we’re taking a slight breather so that our students can study for and then take their final exams. After that, we’ll be off again with our two-pronged effort: one vehicle traveling around Michigan while the other heads off first for New York City, then south to Virginia, and then west across the country.

I have heard only wonderful comments from the students who have participated so far, and we look forward to working closely with those students signed up for the veterans tour over the summer. (In fact, given the requests of many first-year students, we have now made it possible for students to participate in the summer after their first year.) I guess a nice side benefit for the students has also been becoming “media stars” as they appear on TV and in the local newspapers. (Be sure to take a look on our website for some of the more recent press our students have received.)

We keep expanding the tour both in breadth and in length. If you are interested in finding our more about how you might be able to participate as a student at University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, e-mail me at gordonmc@udmercy.edu. We’ll be happy to put you in touch with students already participating so that you can hear about their experiences first hand.