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Beyond Benefits: A Blueprint for Holistic Veteran Support

Last year, the College of Law and Syracuse University School of Social Work launched the Legal-Social Work Partnership Program to provide free, high-quality legal services for veterans, along with social work insight and guidance.

Established in 2023 with the help of Wendy Goidel ‘84, Esq., the partnership has worked to help reduce veteran homelessness and suicide rates while improving the lives of veterans and military families. The program provides Falk social work students who are interested in the intersection of law and social work with a Fellowship that allows them to conduct field work through Syracuse Law’s Betty and Michael D. Wohl Veterans Legal Clinic (VLC).

“I hear the collaborative energy, and see the law and social work students learn from one another and contribute their unique skills to the cause, which is certainly inspiring,” Assistant Dean of Online and Distance Education, and Associate Teaching Professor in the School of Social Work, Ken Marfilius said. “That’s exactly what Wendy set out when she first wanted to bring this model to life in this capacity.”

Benetta Dousuah G’25, the program’s first Fellow, played a key role in bridging the gap between legal support and social services, creating stronger student-attorney/client relationships by providing the law students with a better understanding of the empathy and awareness needed for the bigger picture, rather than an individual legal problem. Law students began adopting more holistic approaches, realizing the need for non-legal services and recognizing when they should find a resource that is better suited to handle certain problems to create outcomes for veterans seeking support. As a result, more than 100 veterans were served through the 2023-24 Legal-Social Work Partnership Program.

“Sometimes the VLC might be able to get that veteran access to VA healthcare and VA compensation, but they’re still having challenges with their family or getting a job or with their landlord,” Executive Director of both the VLC and Syracuse Law’s Clinical Education, and Director of Veteran and Military Affairs, Elizabeth G. Kubala said. “As a lawyer you want to make sure that your impact is sustainable, and sometimes you realize for that impact to be lasting, there are a number of other things that need to fall into place as well.”

Treating the Whole Person

Building on its first year success, the Goidel Law Group Internship Fund expanded the Legal-Social Work Partnership program to include two Fellows for their second year, bringing in undergraduate Paige Esposito and graduate Margo Lance, to leverage their social work skills alongside the law school students tackling challenging legal issues for veterans. Realizing the various barriers and challenges it took for veterans to come to campus to receive support from the clinic, the team started travelling to Altamont, a local VA residential program in Syracuse, once a week to provide their services directly to clients.

“The legal process can be very overwhelming, confusing and frustrating,” Esposito said. “On top of having to navigate all the factors of homelessness, they’re getting a bunch of legal jargon and serious technical terms thrown at them, so we take a step back and touch on different things that the legal system does not, to focus on the person.”

The student-attorney’s main focus is on getting each veteran discharge upgrades that will lead to improved healthcare and financial support, but sometimes it takes a village to accomplish a simple step that is only one part of the overall legal process. While lawyers may not necessarily pick up a client and take them to a doctor’s appointment, for example, there are people who will, and understanding the different facets of a holistic veteran support team has only improved the VLC’s services. Getting client referrals directly from the Syracuse VA’s Health Care for Homeless Veterans program, Lance and Esposito have integrated themselves into the VA social work team as well, working with case managers and program directors that provide additional services to homeless veterans.

“What’s evident in year two is expansion of collaboration, it’s grown in both scope and impact,” Marfilius said. “Expanding the focus beyond traditional legal advocacy to really include comprehensive trauma-informed assessments and case management.”

While the law students are working to connect veterans with benefits, the social work Fellows assist with the intake process, figuring out what they think each veteran needs alongside the requests made by the clients themselves. Using enhanced communication platforms like UniteUs and SyracuseServes, Lance and Esposito are able to streamline referrals and coordinate care across disciplines, ensuring the veterans’ needs are being met.

“My role is to serve them outside of everything that this student attorney is doing…I interpret how I think social work can play into all the things that they do,” Lance said. “I focus on treating the whole person and that can be anything from food stamps up to if they’re interested in joining a church or engaging in community events.”

By working with the social work Fellows, law students can recognize how this support system helps to alleviate certain needs of their clients, understanding that veterans often face a whole host of challenges that must be addressed to move forward. By holistically identifying the needs of each client, the student-attorneys are able to focus on the areas in which they are best equipped to serve.

“You see tangible improvements in veterans’ stability, not just from a legal standpoint with discharges and upgrades, but also well-being in that stability,” Marfilius said. “There’s interdisciplinary success, the integration of law and social work has resulted in more comprehensive care that addresses both legal and psycho-social challenges.”

Building Up the Community, One Person at a Time

The legal challenges veterans face are unique, typically related to the details of their service, and require a specialized legal background and understanding to solve. As veterans age, these barriers can worsen and begin to involve different areas of their physical, social, and emotional health. Without an appropriate discharge status, many are unable to access the very services designed to support them.

“My dad is a U.S Army veteran and he’s now 100% service-connected. These benefits were something he earned, and the Syracuse Veterans Legal Clinic played a huge part in helping him finally get them,” Lance said. “Watching these student attorneys just jump right in and take care of all the things my dad once had to handle alone is incredible. Now, I’m able to assist people in this process where he didn’t have assistance, helping other veterans access the support they deserve. It’s the most rewarding thing in the world.”

Since its creation, the Legal-Social Work Partnership program has helped a large number of homeless veterans move into permanent housing and access VA healthcare. Now, almost ten clients have achieved an 100% VA rating, meaning they receive $4,000 in disability compensation each month.

“You want to know how to make a difference in a homeless veteran’s life? Get them eligible for healthcare in the VA medical center right here in town and get them monthly steady income,” Kubala said. “That is the kind of impact we’ve seen. We’re impacting veteran homelessness right here in our community.”

Every veteran’s story is different, and the Legal-Social Work Partnership program has proven the need for empathy, patience, and a willingness to figure out what will actually help in each case. What began as an innovative collaboration between Syracuse Law and School of Social Work has evolved into a model for community-driven change, and by meeting veterans where they are, both physically and emotionally, the Legal-Social Work Partnership program is helping to rebuild lives piece by piece.

“We’re taking an underserved and deserving population, and setting them up for a successful life,” Lance said. “It feels like it’s building up the community one person at a time.”

Professor Shubha Ghosh Writes on Housing Prices and Artificial Intelligence

Crandall Melvin Professor of Law Shubha Ghosh contributed the article “The Rent IS Too High: Blame Zoning and Supply Caps, Not Rental Apps” to the Daily Economy.

The article examines the reasons contributing to the high cost of housing and why seeking to stifle the use of artificial intelligence (AI) pricing tools will not address the cost of housing.

Ghosh writes, “Moreover, this crackdown on AI rent tools is not a principled stand against monopoly or collusion. It’s a case of political theater — an attempt to externalize blame for inflation that was caused by governments and central banks themselves.”

Professor Katherine Macfarlane Discusses Self-Accommodations with the American Bar Association

Professor Katherine Macfarlane, Director of the Disability Law and Policy Program, recently participated in a Q&A on self-accommodations with the American Bar Association’s Commission on Disability Rights. The Q&A stems from Self-Accommodations, a new article abstract from Macfarlane available on SSRN.

Macfarlane states that “Self-accommodation should be viewed as a rational response to inaccessible systems, not as the result of an information deficit that can be easily cured. Once self-accommodation is better understood, reducing reliance on it starts with improving formal accommodation processes.”

S.J.D. Candidate Clarisse De La Cerda Moderates Discussion at the International Trademark Association’s Annual Meeting

Clarisse De La Cerda, a College of Law S.J.D. candidate focusing on intellectual property law, moderated a “Table Topic” discussion at the International Trademark Association’s (INTA) annual meeting. The topic was “IP Protection for Video-Games: How Can Trademarks Contribute for Better Enforcement of Rights?”

“A video game encompasses multiple potentially overlapping IP protection issues. The discussion covered the most efficient strategy for IP protection and licensing, according to the participants’ experience. In the area of enforcement, we discussed how litigation can serve as a powerful weapon,” says De La Cerda.

The session ended with a Who Am I? game covering trademarks related to video games.

INTA’s Table Topics sessions offer focused discussions on trending issues and critical questions that bring together global experts from all aspects of trademark enforcement.

De La Cerda is also a member of INTA’s Academic Committee, which provides law students and professors with educational services and support.

Her S.J.D. dissertation focuses on applying an antitrust solution to the enforcement of invalid intellectual property rights. Her advisor is Professor Shubha Ghosh.

Professor Jenny Breen Discusses Judicial Provision in Trump Budget Bill

Professor Jenny Breen spoke with the Christian Science Monitor about a provision in the Trump budget bill that no federal court “may use appropriated funds” to enforce a contempt-of-court citation for failing to comply with an injunction or temporary restraining order “if no security was given when the injunction or order was issued.”

“What Congress is trying to do here is ease the way for the administration to ignore court orders,” says Breen. “Our system requires each branch to step up and check the other branch, and this bill just broadcasts that Congress is not interested in doing that for this president.”

Serving Those Who Served: The Betty and Michael D. Wohl Veterans Legal Clinic

Thanks to the efforts of the Betty and Michael D. Wohl Veterans Legal Clinic (VLC) within the College of Law, hundreds of area veterans have received their benefits or successfully upgraded their military discharge through the pro bono, student-offered legal services since its founding in 2015.

Professor Nina Kohn Discusses Nursing Home Management Issues with the Denver Post

David M. Levy L’48 Professor of Law Nina Kohn recently spoke with the Denver Post about a Colorado nursing home management company sued by short-term staffing vendors for allegedly failing to pay them. Some of the ownership has changed since the lawsuits.

Nursing homes typically don’t have many discretionary expenses, with most money going toward staffing, said Kohn, an expert on long-term care reform. That makes it particularly important to maintain a reputation for paying on time, because they wouldn’t be able to function if vendors cut them off, she said.

“Even if there is 100% new (ownership) turnover, the reputation may remain,” Kohn said.

The article may be behind a paywall.

Professor Jenny Breen’s Essay “Democracy’s Fundamentals: Efficacy, Equality, and the Supreme Court” Highlighted on the Legal Theory Blog

Professor Jenny Breen’s essay, “Democracy’s Fundamentals: Efficacy, Equality, and the Supreme Court” was highlighted on the Legal Theory Blog. Breen recently posted the essay to SSRN.

This essay identifies two fundamental predicates of democratic rule—efficacy and equality—and examines the decisions of the United States Supreme Court in light of both of those key categories, finding that its recent decisions have been consistently undermining both.

Professor Gregory Germain Provides Analysis of New York State Bill That Seeks to Discredit Trump-Related Pro Bono Work

Professor Gregory Germain spoke with the New York Law Journal about a recently introduced New York State bill that would ensure the state wouldn’t recognize pro bono work “resulting from the Trump Administration’s unlawful extortion of private law firms and attack on the practice of law.”

“The bill does not restrict the provision of pro bono work. It only restricts using the hours spent on pro bono work directed by the federal government for pro bono bar credit,” Germain said. “It’s very hard to know what pro bono work the federal government will direct law firms to perform. It’s very possible that some of the pro bono work directed by the federal government would be traditional pro bono work on behalf of the poor, for example. So the legislation might be over-inclusive.”

The full article may be behind a paywall.

Professor Beth Kubala Answers Questions About Military Retirees at Wallet Hub

Professor Beth Kubala, Director of the Betty and Michael D. Wohl Veterans Legal Clinic, recently answered questions commonly faced by military retirees at Wallet Hub.

She provided guidance on taxes, where to retire, how to pursue a new career, and the VA healthcare system.

When discussing new career opportunities for military retirees, Kubala noted, “Many military retirees I know seek careers that continue to provide meaningful opportunities for public service and personal satisfaction like state or local government, the non-profit sector, and even entrepreneurial endeavors.”