Reed Smith
Supporting military veterans
Those injured during their years of military service are often left without the full medical or retirement benefits promised and earned. We have represented 50 such veterans, and currently represent 10 veterans in proceedings within the U.S. Veterans Administration. Our lawyers have won most of these cases, achieving success in acquiring the benefits promised and earned for their clients.
Los Angeles County Bar Association Veterans Legal Services Project
Since 2011, the Veterans Legal Services Project has helped resolve and refer hundreds of matters on behalf of the men and women who have served in the U.S. armed forces. Our lawyers support the project’s current initiative, which is a program that supports unemployed veterans who are at risk of homelessness, by offering legal services, clinics, and self-help workshops.
Center for Post Traumatic Growth
We provide pro bono services to the veteran-founded and -led Center for Post Traumatic Growth. Our lawyers assisted the center on IP matters and various legal issues during its prolific start-up. As a result, it is now able to provide moral injury and trauma counseling in Sacramento, CA, and a clinician training program in Ottawa, Canada, and is aiming to open its largest program in Los Angeles in 2019.
Help for geriatric veterans
Our lawyers assist the Medical-Legal Partnership for Seniors in drafting advanced planning documents such as wills, advanced health care directives, and durable powers of attorney, and helping veterans access public benefits.
Tax exonerations for veterans
In 2016, we launched a project to help exonerated people who were forced to pay federal or state tax on compensatory payments received following exoneration, submit claims for refunds to the federal and state taxing authorities. We work closely on this project with After Innocence, the country’s leading non-profit focused on providing legal and social services to the exonerated community post release. Our latest project with After Innocence is focused on searching for veterans who were court-martialed but later exonerated, and as result received payments from the U.S. government.
Our firm received the Everyday Heroes Award 2016 from Thomson Reuters for this pro bono work.