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ABA Military Pro Bono Project 2012 Summer Newsletter: Pro Bono Attorneys

  • 8/23/2012
  • ABA Military Pro Bono Project


ABA Military Pro Bono Project
2012 Summer 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 Accepting Pro Bono Cases for our Servicemembers!

 

Thank you for registering with the Project and for your interest in helping our military families receive the legal assistance that they need. The Project’s success depends on your continued participation.

Since the Project’s establishment in late-2008, it has secured pro bono assistance for over 600 servicemembers and their families in 47 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 all of you—the Project’s volunteer attorneys who have accepted cases—nearly $3 million in billable hours have been donated 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 providing legal assistance to our servicemembers. Encourage them to register on the Project website so they can stay up-to-date on the pro bono opportunities to serve those who serve us. Over 1,600 attorneys and pro bono coordinators have registered with the Project with an interest in accepting pro bono cases and/or providing advice through Operation Stand-By. However, our volunteer roster must continue to grow so case referrals can be successfully placed with volunteer attorneys throughout the nation.

 

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:
Providing Attorney-to-Attorney Guidance to Military Attorneys

 

The Project also includes Operation Stand-By, through which you may offer to provide attorney-to-attorney guidance to military attorneys so they can further assist their servicemember clients.

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 agree to potentially participate in short attorney-to-attorney phone conversations or emails with military attorneys in need of legal 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:

Already signed up with Operation Stand-By?

  • Log onto the Project website, www.militaryprobono.org, to review your current profile. Please make sure that your contact information and substantive legal areas of interest are accurate and up-to-date.
  • Have you completed the Operation Stand-By Survey: Volunteer Attorneys? If you are signed up with Operation Stand-By and have not yet completed this survey, please take 2-5 minutes to do so. Your feedback is greatly appreciated, as it helps us improve Operation Stand-By for both military and volunteer attorneys.

Thank you to the ABA Section of Family Law Military Committee, which partnered with the Project in the creation of the new Operation Stand-By in 2011.

 

Free Educational Resources 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 Library.

Additionally, through the Library, you can request free copies of articles from an issue of Clearinghouse Review: Journal of Poverty Law and Policy, which cover a range of legal and practice issues involving veterans and active-duty servicemembers. Visit the Library to learn more.

 

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.). This webinar includes information about the following:
    • SCRA theory v. practice, SCRA practice trends, default judgments, court-appointed attorneys, stay applications, mortgage foreclosures, and child custody
  • Survivor Benefit Plan & Other Benefits, presented by Mark E. Sullivan, COL, USAR (Ret.) and Charles R. Raphun, LTC, USAR. This webinar includes information about the following:
    • Survivor Benefits Plans (SBP) for military retirees’ spouses, former spouses, or children
    • Military medical care for former spouses and children after divorces

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. This audio CD-ROM includes the following:
    • The specifics of the SCRA as it pertains to creditors
    • How the mortgage foreclosure crisis has specifically impacted military families
    • Examples of cases where lenders have failed to observe SCRA rights of military members
    • The work being done by the Department of Justice to enforce the SCRA
    • How the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is working with military families and Lenders to resolve credit matters
    • Advice for lenders’ counsel on best practices when handling issues involving service members

 

Salute to Pro Bono!

 

Did you help a servicemember by accepting a pro bono case through the ABA Military Pro Bono Project? Did you give advice to a military attorney through Operation Stand-By? Share your experiences about how you helped our servicemembers through the Project! Inspire other attorneys to help those who sacrifice so much for us all. Click here for further information and leave a kind testimonial.

 

Dialogue: Spring and Summer 2012

 

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.

 

Useful 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

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 through the Project in your geographic or substantive area. Please consider helping our servicemembers 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 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 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 website.

 

 

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