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ABA Military Pro Bono Project: 2012 Winter Newsletter - Pro Bono Attorneys

  • 1/11/2012
  • ABA Military Pro Bono Project

 





ABA Military Pro Bono Project
2012 Winter Newsletter
Pro Bono Attorneys

 



The ABA Military Pro Bono Project, www.militaryprobono.org, 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 Helping our Servicemembers!

Many of our servicemembers are troubled with legal needs that can distract them from their missions and can make their already difficult daily lives even more challenging. Thank you for registering with the Project and showing your interest in helping our servicemembers to make sure that they receive the legal assistance that they need.

Since the Project’s establishment in late-2008, it has secured pro bono assistance for nearly 500 servicemembers and their families in 41 states with volunteer attorneys and pro bono coordinators like you! You have provided assistance in a variety of civil legal areas, including consumer law, family law, housing, and many others. Based on case-closing data provided by you, the Project’s volunteer attorneys, over $2 million in billable hours have been donated by Project volunteers to our servicemembers. Thank you for your help! Read some of the success stories.

Please spread the word to your colleagues and networks about the Project’s success in helping to provide legal assistance to our servicemembers and encourage them to register on our website so they can stay up-to-date on the pro bono opportunities to serve those who serve us.



Weekly Case Opportunities Email

Are you receiving the ABA Military Pro Bono Project’s weekly case opportunities email? If not, please sign up! This weekly email contains short case summaries, organized by city and state, of the latest cases for which we are seeking volunteer attorneys on behalf of our servicemembers. You can also explore case opportunities under the website’s For Volunteer Attorneys tab, which is updated daily. If you notice a case that is of interest to you, contact Mary Meixner at mary.meixner@americanbar.org, who will provide you with further information.


 
Operation Stand-By: Have you signed up?

In May 2011, with the help of the ABA Family Law Section’s Military Committee, the Project created the new Operation Stand-By, through which you may offer to provide attorney-to-attorney guidance to military attorneys that will allow them to further assist their servicemember clients.

When working with their clients, there may be times when military attorneys need state-specific legal information, or perhaps 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 for the client’s case, 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 in Operation Stand-By itself does not entail pro bono representation. Rather, you agree to potentially participate in short attorney-to-attorney phone conversations or emails with military legal assistance attorneys in need of state-specific legal information relating to your area 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.

Please take a moment to log onto the Project website, www.militaryprobono.org, to update your profile and join the new Operation Stand-By (in your profile, click on “I am registering to join the Project’s Operation Stand-By”). So far, over 300 attorneys in 46 states have registered with Operation Stand-By. Thank you to those of you who have registered!


 
New Resources and Updates on the Project Website

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 Project Library. You may find information that will help you while representing your clients. Thanks to the Georgia Online Justice Community, about 100 new resources were recently added to the Project Library.

New Website Organization

The Project’s public website, www.militaryprobono.org, was recently reorganized so it can better accommodate potential future expansions to the Project. With the new organization, we also hope that you will find the public website easy-to-use when utilizing the website resources.


 
Survey: Assessment of Judicial Training on Military Issues

An online survey is being conducted by the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) with funding support from the Vivian Phillips Charitable Trust. NCJFCJ is requesting help with a very important needs assessment regarding training and technical assistance for juvenile and family courts on military issues. This survey is brief and will take less than 10 minutes to complete. NCJFCJ is asking for survey responses by January 17.

Click here to participate in the survey.

Your answers will remain completely confidential. If you have any questions about this survey, please contact Dr. Shawn Marsh at smarsh@ncjfcj.org or 775.784.8070.


 
Dialogue: Fall 2011

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): Youth in Military Families: An Invisible At-Risk Population, by Justice Bobbe J. Bridge (ret.), Merina Bigley, and Hathaway Burden.

Would you be interested in writing an article to be published in Dialogue? Review the Dialogue Writers’ Guidelines or contact Jason Vail at jason.vail@americanbar.org for more information.



Recently Released Books

A Judge’s Benchbook for the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act

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.

The Military Divorce Handbook

Now completely revised and expanded, 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!


 
The Project Needs Your Help and Support

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 in your geographic or substantive area. Please consider helping our servicemembers by providing financial support to the Project. The ABA Military Pro Bono Project needs your financial support to maintain the Project and meet our servicemember’s legal needs. With your help, the Project’s success has been achieved with dedicated Project staffing of just one part-time attorney.

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 or your firm 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 private 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:


 

AM General
Bechtel
General Dynamics
Lockheed Martin
Rockwell Collins

 


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


 



 

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