Monday February 11, 2008

Last week at University of Detroit Mercy School of Law we made a pretty unusual announcement. At a press conference hosted by Rhonda Walker of WDIV-TV Channel 4, we announced the launch of a national tour of our Mobile Law Office and Veterans Clinic to assist veterans around the nation with accessing federal veterans benefits.

I was very moved to share the podium with representatives of veterans organizations and to be speaking to a group of veterans who have served our country and now need our help -- as attorneys, law students, and as a law school – to serve them.

I think the best way to describe what we're doing is for me to share with you excerpts from my remarks at last week's press conference:

University of Detroit Mercy School of Law is very proud to announce the launch of our Project SALUTE – students and lawyers assisting US troops everywhere exclusively with federal benefits issues. Project SALUTE will build on the success that we’ve had in Michigan in assisting veterans and take that assistance to veterans across the country to help them exclusively with securing their federal veterans benefits.

At University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, we believe in giving our students hands-on experience in dealing with real clients. We also believe in challenging them to serve those in need.

That’s why we established our UDM Veterans Clinic in the first place. Less than a year ago, we decided that rather than sitting back and watching the problems that veterans have, we would actually try to do something about it.

And, working together, our students and our faculty, led by Professor Michael Bryce, Professor Peggy Costello, Professor Joon Sung, and Professor Tammy Kudialis – we’ve created something special. A way for low-income veterans to get the assistance that they need to receive their federal veterans benefits.

The State of Michigan saw the good that we were doing, and they have given us now a grant of $200,000 so that we can take our innovative Mobile Law Office to travel the State reaching out to veterans. And we have. So far, we have served over 600 veterans here in Michigan, in Grand Rapids and Flint, Battle Creek and Lansing, Traverse City and beyond, with many more stops to come.

And I would not be honest if I did not tell you how overwhelmed we have been by the response. Attorneys at major firms and smaller firms, corporate counsels and sole practitioners, have stepped forward. Veterans service organizations have offered us their cooperation and help. In city after city, dozens of veterans have come to take us up on our offer of assistance.

We first announced our Michigan effort on a Saturday – and the first call for assistance from a veteran logged in at 6:12 am that Saturday morning. Within two weeks, we had heard from over 300 veterans. We heard from veterans from all eras and all wars; veterans with all kinds of disabilities and all kinds of stories. But what we have heard the most is the extent of the need and the level of gratitude that the veterans we help express.

Now, the truth is that it is really we who should be offering our gratitude to them. And that’s why we started thinking long and hard about how to expand our efforts. Chris Johnson at General Motors stepped forward to achieve the impossible – getting GM to donate a new custom-designed, state of the art second Mobile Law Office that will enable us to supplement our efforts in Michigan with efforts beyond. So while our Michigan tour continues and indeed expands, today we announce a new phase – a national tour to assist veterans.

Why are we doing this? Because it is great training for our students. And because it is a great service for those who have already served.

What will we be doing? In city after city across this country, UDM School of Law and the faculty and students in our Veterans Clinic will be doing five things:

1.Providing educational outreach for veterans, so that they can learn about their rights to federal veterans benefits.

2.Doing intake so that individual low-income veterans can tell their own stories, and so that they can have their cases handled – either by our Veterans Clinic or by local attorneys willing to volunteer pro bono.

3.In order to increase the number of those attorneys available, we will be providing in many cities training sessions – for free – for any attorney willing to learn about how to handle veterans benefits cases and willing to provide assistance to veterans pro bono.

4.In doing all these things – the education, the training, and the individual cases – we will also be drawing public attention to this critical issue.

5.And fifth, we will be challenging attorneys around the nation to answer the call, by providing countless hours of free assistance to our nation’s veterans.

Law school is about learning, but it is also about learning to do. We want our students here at UDM School of Law to realize that as attorneys, you truly can make a difference in other people’s lives.

And there is no population more deserving than our nation’s veterans. No matter when they served, whether on the frontlines or behind the lines, they have performed a service to all of us. They have already answered the call; we at University of Detroit Mercy School of Law are now answering the call; and together we are issuing a call to others to join with us to serve those who have already served us all.

If you wish to help, please contact me at gordonmc@udmercy.edu.