A group of Notre Dame Law School students recently hosted a legal aid night for veterans at the Miller Veterans Center in South Bend. They met with homeless vets on February 12 to tell them about the services the Notre Dame Clinical Law Center provides and to answer legal questions.
The students, along with David Pruitt, director of the Clinical Law Center; Judy Fox, director of the Economic Justice Clinic; Jim Kelly, director of the Community Development Clinic, and Patrick Thomas, director of the Tax Clinic, discussed a variety of legal concerns with the veterans. Some of these included expungement, bankruptcy, credit problems, and eviction and housing issues.
In addition, the group was able to provide information on other forms of assistance, such as the Volunteer Lawyers Network, and direct veterans who get health care through Veteran Affairs to resources at the St. Joseph County VA Health Care Center.
“We hope that by having events like this the Law School can become more involved with the community and provide legal resources to those in need through our clinics,” said Claudia Stedman, a second-year law student and chair of veterans’ legal assistance for the Military and Veterans Law Association. “We think this can be a building block into cultivating further relationships with the veteran population in South Bend and with the Center for the Homeless.”
The Miller Veterans Center is named after Notre Dame Law alumnus Robert L. Miller Sr. ’42, ’47 J.D., a former St. Joseph Superior Court judge and retired lieutenant commander of the U.S. Naval Reserves. It operates under the umbrella of the Center for the Homeless and can house up to 24 veterans.
The event was organized by students from the Law School’s Military and Veterans Law Association and the Federalist Society.
Originally published by at law.nd.edu on February 15, 2019.