Military Mondays Voted as ABA’s 2016 Brown Select Winner
Improving Access to Legal Services Prof. Patricia Roberts accepted the Brown Select Award on Feb. 6 in San Diego. L-R: Eric Olson and Lacey Price (Starbucks), Prof. Roberts, and past ABA President Robert Hirshon, the Frank G. Millard Professor from Practice and special counsel on developments in the legal profession at University of Michigan Law School. Courtesy of the ABA
The votes have been counted and the results are in.
The Lewis B. Puller, Jr. Veterans Benefits Clinic’s Military Mondays program, one of 33 nominees for the American Bar Association’s (ABA) 2016 Louis M. Brown Award for Legal Access, was recently announced as the popular winner in the 2016 Brown Select Award.
The Brown Select Award gives the general public the opportunity to vote for their favorite Louis M. Brown Award nominee online, elevate the awareness of the Award, and advance insights into the work of the nominees.
More than 3,800 people voted, and Military Mondays received more than 700 votes. The annual awards are presented by the ABA Standing Committee on Delivery of Legal Services in memory of Louis M. Brown, who worked to improve access to legal services by advancing the idea of legal clinics in the 1950s and later with his students as a professor at the University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law.
“This is a wonderful validation of the exceptional efforts that our staff and students are going to in meeting the needs of veterans,” said Patricia Roberts, Clinical Professor of Law and Director of Clinical Programs and of the Lewis B. Puller, Jr. Veterans Benefits Clinic. “We are grateful for the many people who voted and helped spread the word to extend our reach, and excited that Military Mondays is now being replicated across the country.”
Military Mondays is a partnership between William & Mary Law School’s Puller Clinic and Starbucks' Armed Forces Network. The program originally launched in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia--home to several active military bases, upwards of 100,000 active-duty and reserve personnel, and thousands of veterans.
The first Military Mondays Claims over Coffee was held in June 2015, and continues to be held twice monthly at the McLaws Circle Starbucks in Williamsburg on select Mondays.
During each session, Puller Clinic representatives dispense free advice and counsel regarding disability compensation benefits and other topics of interest to veterans and service members.
The successful pilot program is expanding nationally, with Orange County, California, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, and Miami now offering their own Military Mondays, with others in North and South Carolina, Boston, and Missouri to follow. Appointments in Williamsburg can be made at veterans@wm.edu or (757) 221-7443.
The Brown Select Award originated in 1995 and honors the work of Louis M. Brown, who for more than 60 years worked toward improving access to legal services for those of moderate and middle incomes.
Roberts accepted the Award with Starbucks’ partners from Orange County, California, Lacey Price (District Manager) and Eric Olson (Store Manager) at a plenary session of the National Conference of Bar Presidents at the ABA Midyear Meeting on Saturday, Feb. 6, in San Diego, California.
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