The City Bar Justice Center Holds Its 6th Annual Veterans Day Breakfast and Ethics CLE

The City Bar Justice Center (CBJC) hosted its 6^th Annual Veterans Day Breakfast and Ethics CLE on Thursday, November 11, to recognize the impactful work of our Veterans Assistance Project (VAP) and to commemorate the honorable service provided by the veterans we assist.

Makedah Salmond, Director of VAP, led a CLE training on “Ethics of Representing Veterans & Survivors Before the Department of Veterans Affairs.” Over 30 individuals joined the hybrid event, with some participating in-person and the rest attending virtually. Ms. Salmond covered the main ethical components of VA practice and how they pertain to attorneys who represent clients before the VA. The interactive CLE training also included hypotheticals, ethical considerations for advocates, and a Q&A session.

The Veterans Assistance Project provides veterans living at or below the poverty line in New York City with pro bono legal assistance on issues related to their claims for disability benefits from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Through VAP’s partnership with 45 law firms and corporate legal departments, over 240 trained pro bono attorneys have provided counsel and representation to veterans. In recent years, VAP has provided legal assistance to more than 2,000 veterans and secured approximately $7.6 million in retroactive benefits in addition to more than $250,000 in ongoing disability benefits.

According to data from the VA, approximately 187,443 claims for VA disability compensation and pension claims are backlogged as of March 2021 and will not be addressed until 2022. For veterans living on scarce income, access to high-quality legal assistance could mean the difference between continued years of poverty or a hopeful future of financial stability and essential health care. We look forward to our continued partnership with volunteers and pro bono and community partners to develop programming that is responsive to the unmet, and evolving, legal needs of our clients.

A special thank you to our 2021 Veterans Day event sponsors for their continued support!

$5,000 level sponsors

• Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP
• Kirkland & Ellis LLP
• Proskauer Rose LLP
• Sidley Austin LLP

$2,500 level sponsors                                

• American International Group, Inc.
• Bloomberg LP
• Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP
• Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP
• Mizuho Financial Group, Inc.
• Morgan Stanley
• Ropes & Gray LLP
• Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

$1,000 level sponsors

• Covington & Burling LLP
• Seyfarth Shaw LLP