Grants Awarded to Veterans Legal Assistance Program

Funds Received Will Assist Veterans

BY DOUG LAWRENCE AND LESLIE SPATOLA

With the backing of the Austin Bar Association and Austin Bar Foundation board of directors and members, the staff of the Veterans Legal Assistance Program has applied for several grant funding opportunities from organizations that aim to assist veterans. Doug Lawrence, managing attorney of the program, is pleased to announce that the following foundations have graciously agreed to support this deserving project in its mission to expand the provision of charitable legal aid services and educational programs to our local veteran community:

• The Greater Round Rock Community Foundation: $5,000 donated to assist the veteran residents of Williamson County who would otherwise be considered ineligible for legal aid services;

• The State Bar of Texas Litigation Section: $5,500 donated to hire a summer law student intern; and

• The Austin Community Foundation: $1,000 donated to update program equipment.

The Veterans Legal Assistance Program staff and volunteers are ecstatic to have gained new support from three generous organizations.

The Austin Bar Foundation’s Veterans Legal Assistance Program organizes and provides monthly free legal advice clinics for qualified, low-income veterans, active-duty, and reserve-duty servicemembers, as well as their families, who reside in or have a civil legal issue in the jurisdictional areas of Bastrop, Blanco, Burnett, Caldwell, Gillespie, Hays, Travis, and Williamson counties. In addition to program staff, the Austin Bar Association’s board and members, along with other local attorneys and students from The University of Texas School of Law volunteer at our monthly civil legal aid clinics to provide help and advice to a much-underserved community. Through partnerships with Bar members, other local legal aid programs, and veteran resource offices, the Veterans Legal Assistance Program improves the justice system by connecting volunteer attorneys who provide pro bono legal advice and/or direct services to members of the veteran community who may otherwise be unable to access it. Since Jan. 1, 2022, this small but necessary program has proudly organized eleven legal clinics, which were held in Austin, Lockhart, and Fredericksburg. The Veterans Legal Assistance Program staff and volunteers are ecstatic to have gained new support from the generous organizations above, and look forward to the opportunity to continue serving veterans and their families at the remaining legal clinics scheduled this year. AL