MACV’s Vetlaw team is proud to announce that earlier this month, we served our 10,000th Veteran!
The Vetlaw program’s roots can be traced to late 2009, when a small group of attorneys and law students partnered with MACV to host our first legal clinic at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center. Over the years, the program gained full-time staff and grew to provide services to Veterans across the state of Minnesota.
While the sheer volume of services provided is impressive, it is important to understand the real-world impact of these services on our Veteran clients. Each Veteran served, whether at a legal clinic event or directly by our staff attorneys, receives individualized advice and counsel on the legal issue which drove them to reach out to us. Many of these Veterans were facing eviction or post-eviction legal issues, while some were struggling to regain driver’s licenses, or the collateral consequences of past involvement with the criminal justice system.
Regardless of the legal issue, the Vetlaw team and our veritable army of volunteers did our best to counsel the Veteran with respect and patience, helping them navigate the often confusing and stressful world of the court system.
The dedication of Minnesota’s legal community to serve our Veterans is unmatched – it always surprises me when programs around the country ask how we find attorneys to help. We just ask and they come through for our Veterans. Even as our clinics took a hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic, our faithful volunteers have reached out to ask how they can help support us and our clients. I am not exaggerating when I say that we truly could not have reached this milestone without the support of our wonderful community supporters.
–Sara Sommarstrom
Vetlaw Director