The clinic`s practice includes, but is not limited to, administrative law, disability law, mental health law, military law, inheritance law and constitutional law. Students gain in-depth experience with: interviews with clients and witnesses; collaboration with medical evidence and experts; drafting of pleadings, motions and oral arguments; the development of legal instruments; examination and cross-examination of witnesses at hearings; judicial review of Agency decisions; oral arguments, conduct of negotiations; and resolving ethical dilemmas. Overall, the clinic focuses on using the law to promote financial stability, access to health care, and the dignity of veterans, their families, and people with disabilities. In practice, however, VA employees often tell veterans with bad papers that they are categorically ineligible to receive health benefits, according to the report, which attributes the discrepancy to incorrect information provided to employees in VA registration guides, manuals and trainings. Katie joined Harvard Law School`s Legal Services Center in 2020 as an Equal Justice Works Fellow at the Veterans Legal Clinic. She received her law degree from Harvard Law School. While in law school, Katie articled at the Massachusetts Advocates for Children; the Disability Law Center in Boston; and Public Counsel in Los Angeles. She has also been a student attorney at the Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Project, LSC Veterans Legal Clinic, LSC Family and Domestic Violence Law Clinic, and Harvard Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation. Katie holds a B.A. in history, summa laude and Phi Beta Kappa, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The clinic is offered in the fall and spring semesters.
You can learn more about the required clinical course component, clinical credits, and clinical registration process by reading the course catalog description and exploring the links in this section. Julie joined the Centre`s staff in June 1994 and is a non-lawyer authorized legal representative. She specializes in disability issues and runs a high-volume administrative law firm, mainly before administrative judges of the Social Security Administration. She supervises clinical students representing clients in administrative environments. In providing holistic services to clients, she also works on employment, estate planning, consumers and other benefits, working with the estate planning project, consumer protection clinic, family law clinic, housing clinic, tax clinic and veterans` legal clinic to meet the broader needs of clients. After emigrating from Ireland, where she obtained her law degree in 1989, Julie worked at Community Legal Aid (then LACCM) in Worcester, representing clients in employment, housing, consumer and employment law. At the LACCM, she organized membership for all lawyers and non-management staff of the National Organization of Legal Services Workers (NOLSW), District 65, UAW and was the first president of the new locals. She is a co-lecturer in disability law and administrative law at the Veterans Law and Disability Benefits workshops at Harvard Law School.
She coordinates community workshops on legal education at the People`s Law School of the Centre`s People`s Law School and has lectured extensively to national and national groups on access to justice, social security and disability issues. Julie holds a B.A. in Law and Economics and an L.L.B. in Civil and Canon Law from Ollscoil na hEireann, Gaillimh (National University of Ireland Galway, Republic of Ireland). Harvard Law School`s Veterans Legal Clinic released a report Thursday alleging that the Department of Veterans Affairs illegally turned away nearly half a million veterans seeking health care. Dana Montalto is a lawyer and clinical instructor at the Veterans Law Clinic, where she represents low-income veterans who received less-than-honorable discharge in military release enhancements and federal and state veterans benefits. Dana also works on systemic reform initiatives to improve the institutions that serve our nation`s veterans, including the creation of Underserved: How the VA Wrongfully Exclus Veterans with Bad Paper and the formation of the Veterans Justice Pro Bono Partnership. Dana received her Magna Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Wellesley College and her law degree from Yale Law School, where she attended the Veterans Legal Services Clinic and the International Refugee Assistance Project.
After graduation, Dana worked for the Honourable F. Dennis Saylor IV of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts and joined the Legal Services Center in 2014 as an Arthur Lin Public Interest Fellow. We encourage you to click on the links to these projects to learn more about these areas of law and LSC`s commitment to meeting the legal needs of veterans. The report acknowledges that veterans who received less-than-honourable releases from the military may have transgressed, but notes that all veterans deserve the opportunity to apply for benefits. Destini joined Harvard Law School`s Legal Services Center in 2018 as a clinical instructor and director of the Veterans Legal Clinic`s estate planning project. Destini`s clinical work focuses on free legal representation for veterans in areas such as drafting wills, powers of attorney, powers of attorney and trusts. Prior to joining the Veterans Legal Clinic, Destini was most recently Deputy Director of the Office of Co-op Programs and Career Development at Northeastern University School of Law, where she also served as a mock trial coach for the NUSL`s National Fair Trial Team. She has also taken on pro bono cases for the Community Legal Services and Counseling Center`s Immigration Law Project and the Women`s Bar Foundation`s Elder Law Project, where she helped seniors prepare their estate planning documents. Previously, Destini was a litigator in the Child and Family Law Division of the Public Advisory Committee. Destini is originally from Arizona and received her B.S.
in Justice Studies and Social Investigation from Arizona State University, graduating summa laude. She is also a graduate of New York University School of Law, where she received the John Sexton Dean`s Award for Outstanding Service to the School of Law. The Law on Civil Assistance to Military Personnel provides legal protection for active soldiers. For more information on specific safeguards, see our Veteran and Military Resource Guide. Daniel Nagin is a Clinical Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Centre for Legal Services. He is also the faculty director of the Veterans Legal Clinic at the Legal Service Center, which he founded in 2012.