City Bar Justice Center Volunteers Join CLE in Honor of Veterans Day

The City Bar Justice Center (CBJC) held its fifth annual Veterans Day celebration remotely in recognition of the impactful work accomplished by our Veterans Assistance Project (VAP) with the invaluable support of our longstanding partners.

On November 11, VAP hosted a Virtual Veterans Day Coffee Hour & Ethics CLE and despite the venue change, from an in-person gathering to a virtual meeting via Zoom, over 80 enthusiastic participants joined and actively participated throughout the event. Kent Eiler, VAP’s Project Director, provided a training on “Ethics of Representing Veterans & Survivors Before the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)”. Kent took the audience through the VA’s four main components of ethics and how they pertain to attorneys who represent clients before the VA. He guided attendees through interactive hypotheticals, applying concepts that had been reviewed on potential ethics concerns that may arise when representing clients before the VA.

A special thank you to our 2020 Veterans Day event sponsors for their generous contributions and longstanding support: American International Group Inc., Chubb Group, Covington & Burling LLP, Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Morgan Stanley, Proskauer Rose LLP, and Sidley Austin LLP. We would also like to recognize VAP partners who make our work possible including the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation, New York Community Trust and members of the New York City Council Committee on Veterans including Ch. Chaim M. Deutsch, Paul Vallone, and Alan N. Maisel.

With the tremendous support of our partners, the Veterans Assistance Project provides New York City’s disabled, low-income veterans and survivors with critical pro bono legal assistance on issues related to their claims for compensation from the VA. VAP currently leverages the resources of more than 400 pro bono attorneys that are trained and mentored by our team from over 60 law firms and corporations. In the past year, VAP volunteers have helped hundreds of NY vets obtain $28,582.60 in new, monthly, recurring benefits and $872,226.61 in retroactive benefits. Further, their contributions fuel the City Bar Justice Center’s racial justice efforts as the majority of VAP clients are persons of color who are facing a range of systemic challenges on top of the difficulties of navigating the VA system to secure critical benefits amid the pandemic.

If you missed the 2020 Virtual Veterans Day Coffee Hour and Ethics CLE or are interested in learning more about veterans’ law, there are two upcoming CLE events we invite you to attend:

1. “Serving More NYS Veterans: Holistically Incorporating Veterans Law Into Your Practice,” will be chaired by Kent Eiler on Friday, November 20th, from 3:00-4:15pm. Attendees of this event will receive 1.5 Diversity, Inclusion, and Elimination of Bias CLE Credits.
2. “Veterans Assistance Project Training,” is a 3-hour long training and provides an overview of VA benefits, veterans law, the claims and appeals processes, and how to be an effective advocate before the VA. It will be held on Wednesday, December 16th. You will be eligible for 3 CLE skills credits. To RSVP, please contact VAP Project Coordinator, Logan Campbell, at lcampbell@nycbar.org.