For Alex Breazeale, a University of South Carolina Law School set to graduate next year, volunteering with the school’s new Veterans Legal Clinic was a chance to gain real-world experience–in more than one sense of the term.
“When they’re coming back, [veterans] face certain challenges that maybe another citizen or maybe your average Joe wouldn’t face. They’ve seen things that the rest of us may not have seen or been exposed to–terrible things–and when they come back, it’s definitely a transition for them be reacquainted and readjust with daily life,” Breazeale said. “One of the most eye-opening things is that every single veteran that we have helped in our clinic, or on my team, has had some sort of issue with trying to readjust and reacquaint themselves with daily life.”
The school launched the clinic in 2018 after a symposium on access to justice for military personnel hosted by the university uncovered a need for pro bono services for veterans. South Carolina is home to more than 367,000 veterans, the seventh-largest population of veterans in the nation, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs says more than 25,000 veterans live in poverty in South Carolina.
Research from the Veterans Administration was used to determine the greatest legal needs of indigent veterans, and today students help those veterans on cases relating to access to government benefits, family law, consumer debt protections, and landlord/tenant and housing issues. Some students even argue cases before family court judges.
Bennett Gore, the clinic’s director, is a veteran and a Major in the South Carolina National Guard. Gore said the popularity of the class among students and the participation of veteran clients took off faster than he expected.
“It was like a floodgate opened,” when the clinic launched in 2018. “Seeing all that, I think the law school realized this is an important issue going forward … We’re getting busier and busier, which is good.”
Grants from the South Carolina Bar Foundation and the Boeing Foundation funded the initial services provided by the legal clinic.
The clinic also worked with the Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough Center on Professionalism to develop a comprehensive assessment of the legal needs of veterans in South Carolina. The 72-page report, released in September, assesses the legal needs of low-income veterans, their access to legal services and reviews the most frequent legal issues they encounter using data gathered from surveys of veterans and service providers.
Data from the study will be used to understand the scope of veterans’ legal needs and to be used as a baseline for measuring the effectiveness of future legal services.
“It’s been a good opportunity for me to have actual client interactions,” said student Andrew Hethington, who is set to graduate next year. “Through my clerkships and other jobs I’ve had in legal work, I’ve never had the opportunity to have a one-on-one client interaction. So from that angle, it’s been great for me as a student.”
Contact Renee Sexton on Twitter @BobcatRenee