80 Veterans Get Free Legal Advice from Alumni Volunteers

Date: 03/20/2012

More than a dozen area attorneys, including two from Long Island, provided free legal advice on two separate Saturdays to some 80-plus veterans in areas of credit, taxes, benefits, claims, wills and more. Each veteran was given an hour with the volunteer lawyer.

The project, part of the Law School’s Veterans’ Rights Pro Bono Project led by Benjamin Pomerance ’13, has already spawned two outgrowths: a visitor from Hofstra’s School of Law observed the Clinic to take the model back to his school, and the Stratton V.A. Hospital, Albany Law’s neighbor, is looking to implement a weekly clinic on the hospital site, based on the School’s model.

Jack Clancy of the Tri-County Council for Vietnam Era Veterans, said he knew countless veterans with claims issues that were too complex to solve on their own.

Alumni who provided their services pro bono include:

Maj. Joel Abelove ‘95, Senior Defense Counsel for the U.S. Army Trial Defense Service
Kathleen Tombs ‘98
Robert Randall ‘74 , The Randall Law Firm  
Julie Ann Calareso ’03, Burke & Casserly
Louis Pierro ’83, The Pierro Law Group
Michael W. Macomber, Tully Rinckey PLLC  ’09
Harry Miller of The Herzog Law Firm ’74