Veterans Legal Institute

Imagine being a disabled veteran and not being able to afford access to justice? The majority of public interest law firms and private practice attorneys are focused on free legal aid because of the manner nonprofit law firms are funded. If selected, the Elevate Prize will build an unshakable bridge to justice for modest-income veterans so they can dream again at home after selfless service to the nation. 

I am a former first responder who comes from a military family. My husband served in the United States Marines, transitioned to the Army Reserve, and is currently still serving for the California State Guard. My uncle served for over 20 years in the United States Navy. Heartbreakingly, my father gave the ultimate sacrifice in dying from ALS, which was connected to his US Air Force Service as a young man just starting out life in the early 1960s. I believe that freedom changes everything, and life can change in an instant. For the brave men and women of our nation, I believe in honoring their service with delivering access to justice so they can thrive long after they return home. I know that my team at Veterans Legal Institute can deliver on this promise to fix this problem. I began as a volunteer grant writer 5 years ago and quickly scaled to Deputy Executive Director in order than no veteran would be left behind. 

California has one of the largest veteran populations in the nation. Southern California has over 800,000 veterans that are equally split between Pre and Post 9/11 service. A recent justice gap report estimated 85% of Californians do not access justice. This is in part due to the crushing recruitment and retention problem as many legal professionals are unable to focus on free legal or develop sustainable sliding scales because of the cost of education. Veterans Legal Institute is one of the very few public interest law firms in the nation dedicated to veterans. It provides free legal aid to homeless, disabled, and low-income veterans to prevent veteran homelessness and suicide. Practice areas include all aspects of a veteran's wellbeing and includes family law, consumer law, estate planning, veterans benefits, housing, and more. It leverages a staff of 15 with over 200 volunteers a year. Since 2014, Veterans Legal Institute has served over 9,000 veterans and restored over two and half million dollars in veterans benefits. Every year, Veterans Legal Institute has to refer out hundreds of veterans who do not income qualify for free legal aid. Even so, Veterans Legal Institute remains dedicated to solving this problem. 

Since inception, Veterans Legal Institute has been working to find enough seed money for a bold low-bono program to show that this model can be sustainable. To be clear, if a veteran has a physical or invisible wound of war, and receives service-connected disability, this is considered income -- and it is just high enough to disqualify the disabled veteran as indigent for purposes of free legal aid. Recently, Veterans Legal Institute has worked with California State Senator Tom Umberg to amend state legislation so service-connected disabled veterans will qualify for free legal aid since the definition of indigency has not been updated in over 30 years. It is promising that the legislation moved our of committee on consent agenda, and we are hopeful that it will become law in January 2022. Also, there are many veterans who do not choose to become service-connected, believing their fellow brothers and sisters in service are more injured they they are. This means these low and modest income veterans will still be unable to qualify for free legal aid or to afford private bar rates -- even though their service has made our freedoms possible. 

Because of the pandemic, our veterans have been at greater risk of homelessness and suicide. Courts and government agencies have been closed. Parents have needed pandemic parenting plans. Elder veterans have been isolated and struggling to care for disabled adult children. Job losses and evictions have veterans reeling. In 2020, Veterans Legal Institute switched over 40 in-person clinic dates to virtual so that free legal aid would continue uninterrupted while maximizing the safety of its staff, volunteers, and community. As a result, Veterans Legal Institute was able to recover at least $500,000 in civilian monetary benefits. Winning the Elevate Prize will allow us to fund a low-bono attorney/paralegal team for two years. This team will be able to directly serve up to 200 veterans a year while being able to conservatively 2-3x that amount with training other public interest and private law firms to do the same. Veterans Legal Institute is confident in these numbers as our pro bono attorney base is over 80 solo and large firms and includes over a dozen mediators.