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Funding veterans legal clinic goal of organizers, representatives

Thomas White first thought of contacting me in January but the timing wasn’t right, he figured.

“Right now the timing is right,” he told me on the eve of the Memorial Day weekend.

The retired U.S. Army major and Valparaiso University Law School alum is the former director of the Veterans Legal Support Center & Clinic at John Marshall Law School in Chicago. There, he helped hundreds of military veterans in need of legal assistance secure Veterans Administration benefits who were otherwise unable to do so.

White, a 49-year-old father of three from Valparaiso, is on military disability for heart-related medical issues. He understands what many veterans are up against regarding rejected claims for disabilities from the VA.

“When you’re told no by the military, you learn to just salute and move on,” said White, who served 20 years in active duty with experience as a military intelligence officer and judge advocate. “I learned that a lot of vets want nothing to do with Uncle Sam anymore and all its red tape.”

“The military was good for me but it’s not good for everybody,” White noted.

Last year he joined the ranks of Valparaiso University Law School officials who’ve been trying, so far unsuccessfully, to create a similar Veterans and Military Law Clinic on the VU campus. The group’s nine-page proposal is thorough and well researched, highly detailed with outlined objectives.

The proposal states, “It would differentiate Valparaiso University Law School as providing the only Veterans and Military Law Clinic in the state of Indiana, and one of only 21 veterans clinics in the United States. The addition of this clinic would be mutually beneficial to students, the University/Law School, and to veterans.”

In 2013, the first group of VU law students and staff wrote the initial proposal. The following year the Indiana General Assembly passed a resolution decreeing that all Indiana law schools should establish legal clinics for veteran clients. In that bill, a fund was identified to support such programs.

“That fund was never actually funded, however,” said Mary Bandstra, director of operations for Valparaiso University Law School.

In 2014, the American Bar Association announced a national call for law schools to establish more veterans’ benefits clinics. That summer, the new dean of VU’s law school, Andrea D. Lyon, came on board and also supported the proposal.

When White joined the cause late last year, supporters hoped the tide would finally turn in their favor. His background is certainly impressive, and he has firsthand experience with such law clinics for vets. But even this savvy vet has yet to navigate the political landmines and funding booby-traps for such an endeavor.

“Funding is the main problem,” said White, citing several factors, including Indiana’s budget problems and pending grant requests.

“Tom and I have been working every angle we can come up with to secure funding,” Bandstra said. “We’ve written millions of dollars’ worth of grant requests, and we keep reaching out to elected officials.”

At the state level, they spoke with State Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso, who told me he shared their insights with fellow legislators who are veterans.

“The idea seems credible, achievable, and it meets a definite need,” Soliday said. “Getting veterans quality, trained legal services to appeal cases where administrative errors have occurred is a real challenge in a complex bureaucracy like the VA.”

“The beauty of the program is it gives law students an opportunity to work in a difficult area of the law, supervised by trained attorneys from all over the state, while helping some people who paid a tremendous price for all of us,” Soliday said. “This is well worth helping to make it a reality. Next, we start looking for funding.”

At the federal level, U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Merrillville, told me he is a co-sponsor of H.R. 4118, the Veterans Legal Support Act of 2015.

Introduced by U.S. Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-District of Columbia, a non-voting delegate to the House, this measure would authorize the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to provide certification and financial assistance to law school clinical programs that provide pro bono legal and support services to veterans.

“It is the hope that the provisions included in H.R. 4118 will allow law school clinical programs to expand the services they are able to provide to our nation’s veterans,” Visclosky said.

These are perfect examples of the rousing feedback the VU group has received from lawmakers, military officials and veterans groups.

Bandstra told me, “Everywhere we turn we keep getting told, ‘This is a great idea,’ ‘This will help so many people in Northwest Indiana,’ and ‘We need this.’ It seems simple but we keep hitting brick walls.”

There are roughly 62,000 veterans living in Northwest Indiana’s five-county area that could be served by this legal clinic, according to the group’s research. And I’ve heard only positive feedback from local vets about its potential.

“I heard about this project months ago, but it needs money,” said Tom Pappas of Portage.

Yes, lack of money is a problem. But so is the political will and public pressure to secure that funding.

“While we have been getting plenty of lip service about how this should be a priority, we haven’t seen a lot of action to back that up,” Bandstra said.

Organizers figure they need roughly $400,000 to $500,000 to initially launch the law clinic, and $300,000 a year to operate it. VU will provide space, staff support and office resources, but the university doesn’t have the funds to pay for the rest.

“Clinics are a crucial part of legal education and community service, but they are expensive to run,” Bandstra said. “The Porter County Council has said they will fund us with a one-to-one match, but they won’t commit until we have some funds from other sources.”

Bandstra and White agree it’s important to note that there is already a hard-working group of Veterans Services Officers, or VSOs, across Northwest Indiana who work helping vets apply for VA benefits.

“Veterans Law Clinics don’t replace or compete with those folks,” she said. “We are the people who help veterans who are owed VA benefits and who have applied but who have been denied for whatever reason.”

White said he knows these local VSOs very well, and the law clinic would be a needed resource for them. The clinic would also serve veterans in local veteran courts for substance abuse treatment.

White has already secured three local attorneys to help operate the clinic when it becomes a reality.

“We’ll need an army of other attorneys, but it can be done,” White said.

Region lawmakers are currently writing bills to be considered for the state’s next budget session. Bandstra, White and other clinic supporters hope these lawmakers finally move beyond lip service to instead serve our struggling veterans.

On this Memorial Day weekend, I hope residents here also take up this battle by voicing their support to their legislators and other officials of influence.

“I believe in this program. I have faith in it. And I really want to see it become a reality in this region,” White said. “Now is the time.”

jdavich@post-trib.com

Twitter @jdavich