Volunteers from AIG, an honoree along with DLA Piper at the April 3, 2019 Annual Gala of the City Bar Justice Center (CBJC), have done remarkable work with CBJC’s Veterans Assistance Project (VAP). In one instance volunteers assisted a disabled Vietnam Marine veteran who suffered from PTSD obtain a 100% total disability rating, reducing the likelihood that the Veterans Administration (VA) can or will be able to reduce the veteran’s disability rating in the future. In another instance volunteers’ work led to the VA acknowledging its error and withdrawing an overpayment notice to a young Afghanistan war veteran.

Volunteers like Patricia Fox and Irene Tan are typical of the commitment pro bono volunteers from AIG show to their VAP clients. Starting in 2016, Patricia advocated through three different stages of the appeals process, all the way up to the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, for a Marine Corps veteran who served in Afghanistan. These incredible efforts recently were rewarded with Patricia’s client receiving a decision granting service connection dating back to 2010, which will result in years’ worth of retroactive benefits.

Following two appeals and multiple years’ work, Irene obtained a 100% total disability rating essentially doubling the monthly income of her client, an Iraq war veteran who hadn’t been able to work in years. Irene’s client now has an annual income of approximately $36,000, whereas when he met Irene he was trying to survive in NYC on less than $20,000 a year. Patricia, Irene, and so many other AIG attorneys have made life-changing differences for low-income disabled veterans served by the City Bar Justice Center.