Pro Bono News

ABA Military Pro Bono Project 2013 Winter Newsletter: Pro Bono Attorneys

Thursday, February 28, 2013

  • ABA Military Pro Bono Project
  • Source: Misc National Sites > ABA Military Pro Bono Project

ABA Standing Committee on Legal Assistance for Military Personnel

ABA Military Pro Bono Project
2013 Winter Newsletter:
Pro Bono Attorneys

 

The ABA Military Pro Bono Project, www.militaryprobono.org, managed by the ABA Standing Committee on Legal Assistance for Military Personnel (LAMP), accepts case referrals from military legal assistance offices anywhere in the world on behalf of junior–enlisted servicemembers with civil legal issues, and it places these cases with pro bono attorneys where the legal assistance is needed in the United States. The Project also includes Operation Stand–By, through which attorneys may volunteer to provide lawyer–to–lawyer consultations to military attorneys.

Thank You for Providing Pro Bono Help to our Military Families!

Thank you for registering with the Project to use its case referral system, Operation Stand–By, and website resources to further help our military families receive the legal assistance that they need. The Project's ongoing success depends on your continued participation.

Pro Bono Legal Assistance

In 2012, the Project successfully placed over 200 pro bono cases with volunteer attorneys and pro bono coordinators like you! Based on case–closing data provided by all of you—the Project's volunteer attorneys who have accepted cases—about 4,000 billable hours of pro bono service for our servicemembers, valued at over $1 million, were donated in 2012. Thank you for your help! Read some of the success stories.

Attorneys interested in providing pro bono legal assistance to servicemembers may register to receive email notices from the Project that describe pro bono case opportunities when they arise in the attorneys' geographic areas and substantive areas of expertise. Please help spread the word about the Project, and encourage your colleagues and legal networks to register on the Project website so they can stay up–to–date about the pro bono opportunities in their areas.

Are you receiving the ABA Military Pro Bono Project's weekly case opportunities email? If not, please sign up! You can also explore pro bono case opportunities under the website's For Volunteer Attorneys tab, which is updated daily.

Special thanks to the recipients of the 2012 ABA Military Pro Bono Project Outstanding Services Award, from the ABA Standing Committee on Legal Assistance for Military Personnel (LAMP), for their extraordinary pro bono services through the Project.

Operation Stand–By

Through the Project's Operation Stand–By, you may offer to provide attorney–to–attorney guidance to military attorneys so they can further assist their servicemember clients. Thanks to those of you who have joined and are participating!

When working with their clients, there may be times when military attorneys need state–specific legal information, or perhaps a deeper analysis of a legal area with which they are less familiar. For example, due to a client's unique facts, a military attorney may have questions about the proper jurisdiction, whether there is a potential legal remedy for the client's issue in a certain state, or how a particular remedy in an unfamiliar legal area can be pursued.

Joining Operation Stand–By gives you the opportunity to help our servicemembers with a very small time commitment, as participation with Operation Stand–By in itself does not entail pro bono representation. Rather, you will potentially receive short calls or emails from JAGs in need of attorney–to–attorney guidance relating to your areas of expertise. Military attorneys registered with the Project will find your contact information and areas of expertise on a password–secured list on the Project website.

Sign up to join Operation Stand–By. Log onto the Project website to update your profile and join Operation Stand–By (in your profile, click on "I am registering to join the Project's Operation Stand–By").

Already signed up with Operation Stand–By? Please log onto the Project website to review your profile. Please make sure that your contact information and substantive legal areas of interest are accurate and up–to–date.


Educational Resources

Project's Online Library

Did you know that the Project has an online library filled with resources that focus on legal issues faced by servicemembers, veterans, and military family members? Log onto the website and visit the Library.

Free Webcasts

Courtesy of the United States Air Force, the Project website provides the following free educational webcasts for its registered members:

  • Servicemembers Civil Relief Act: Update and Practice (2012), presented by Col John S. Odom, Jr., USAF (Ret.).
  • Survivor Benefit Plan & Other Benefits, presented by Mark E. Sullivan, COL, USAR (Ret.) and Charles R. Raphun, LTC, USAR.

CLE Programs

The ABA Standing Committee on Legal Assistance for Military Personnel (LAMP) is hosting a FREE CLE program at the Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego on April 11:

  • An educational program for lawyers on current developments on the use of mediation in military family law cases; bankruptcy and debtor protections and how these may affect military families; a look at the legal issues involved when extending benefits to military personnel with same–sex partners; how to handle property division in military divorce cases; and the military retirement issues that arise in family law. Earn up to five free hours of CLE credit. Register Now!

The following CLE program may be purchased on the ABA Web Store:

  • Observing the Rights of Service Members in Lending and Foreclosure Matters, presented by David M. Bizar, Paul E. Kantwell, Angela Martin, and Amber R. Standridge.

Useful Books

A Judge's Benchbook for the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, by Colonel John S. Odom, Jr., USAF, Retired, is designed to acquaint judges of all levels regarding the provisions that protect servicemembers while they serve on active duty, because many judges are unfamiliar with the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. The Benchbook is available on the ABA Web Store.

 

Description: Sullivan Military Divorce Handbook

The new edition of The Military Divorce Handbook, by Mark E. Sullivan, is a timely and much–needed addition to a family lawyer's library. Both comprehensive and practical, it covers all aspects of representing servicemembers and their spouses in divorce in an accessible, easy–to–use format. This book is available on the ABA Web Store.

ABA Members may purchase these books at discounted prices!


Dialogue: News and Perspectives from the ABA Division for Legal Services

Read the latest article in Dialogue—the magazine of the ABA Division for Legal Services, which brings you news and topical information about the delivery of legal services to low and moderate income people—featured by the ABA Standing Committee on Legal Assistance for Military Personnel (LAMP):

Would you be interested in writing an article for Dialogue? Review the Dialogue Writers' Guidelines or contact us at militaryprobono@americanbar.org for more information.


Financial Support to the Military Pro Bono Project

You have registered with the Project because you are interested in helping our servicemembers who make large sacrifices for our country. However, maybe you have not yet been able to provide pro bono help to our servicemembers. We understand that it is sometimes difficult to add pro bono cases into your already busy schedules. Or, perhaps you have not yet seen a case opportunity through the Project in your geographic or substantive area. Please consider helping our military families by providing financial support to the Project.

Visit www.militaryprobono.org/support to donate. Your financial support of the Project, through the American Bar Association Fund for Justice and Education, a 501(c)(3) entity, will help to ensure that our servicemembers receive the legal help that they need.

Learn how you, your firm, or your company can become a Star Ranking Supporter by visiting the Project website or contacting the Project Director, Mary Meixner, at mary.meixner@americanbar.org or 312.988.5783.


Thank you to the Project's Star Ranking Supporters!

The ABA Military Pro Bono Project depends on financial contributions from Project partners, law firms, corporations, and individuals to further its mission to connect active–duty servicemembers and their families to attorneys willing to donate their time to deliver high quality, free legal services.

Special thanks to the following Star Ranking Supporters:

Five Stars
ABA Logo
Five Stars
AM General
Bechtel
General Dynamics
Lockheed Martin
Rockwell Collins

And thank you to all of our Star Ranking Supporters acknowledged on the Project website.

ABA Logo

You received this email because you have registered as a member of the ABA Military Pro Bono Project. To edit or cancel your membership, log onto www.militaryprobono.org and edit your profile. If you have questions, contact the Project Director, Mary C. Meixner, at mary.meixner@americanbar.org.


Your e–mail address will only be used within the ABA and its entities.
We do not sell or rent e–mail addresses.

Privacy Policy  Contact Us 

American Bar Association | 321 N Clark, Chicago, IL 60654–7598 | 800–285–2221 | 312–988–5522