Vermont Bar Journal, Vol. 40, No. 2 Spring 2015, Vol. 41, No. 1 | Page 16

Interview with Katelyn Atwood

veterans a service; but for the poorest Vermont veterans, pro bono is the only option.
Veterans are spectacularly unique. They
cut across gender, socioeconomic strata,
race, ethnicity, but the one thing that they
all have in common is a sense of duty. If you
are a Vermont lawyer and you have a veteran
walking into your law office, I want to help
you be prepared to address that potential
client’s issue. I think that only does Vermont
attorneys a service as well as their future clients.
BP: If you consult with veterans who you
cannot represent, are you trying to create
a panel of attorneys to whom you can refer
those veterans?
KA: Absolutely. It would be great to have
a list of lawyers on file who are interested in
taking veterans cases, whether they be in
front of the VA or in state court. Especially if a veteran falls outside of our economic
guidelines, because that is one of the things
that attorneys are facing every day, the middle class client - somebody that cannot necessarily pay full freight but makes too much
money for a low-income legal services provider.
BP: As we said before, you are the fourth
poverty law fellow, totally supported by donation by bar members.
KA: Yes.
BP: I think it has been a great seven years
of providing services to Vermonters in different substantive law areas. The first three fellows were all housed at Vermont Legal Aid,

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THE VERMONT BAR JOURNAL • SPRING 2015

and you are the first to be housed at the Vermont Law School.
KA: Yes, which is a homecoming for me.
BP: And you are working with students in
the South Royalton Legal Clinic?
KA: Yes, the student clinicians that are in
the South Royalton Legal Clinic are assigned
cases and I oversee them. The students at
Vermont Law School are so driven and dedicated to public service.
BP: If any member who reads this interview belongs to the American Legion or the
VFW or some other veteran service organization, if they are perhaps interested in having
a speaker for an event, can they contact you?
KA: Absolutely. I am so thankful to be
doing this job. I never would have thought
when I graduated that I would be doing disability cases, let alone veterans work. It has
been an incredible blessing that wouldn’t
have been possible without donations from
the bar, and it is money well spent. We are
helping veterans become economically secure through winning benefits, preserving
housing, and providing a means for redress
within the legal system. That means Vermont
has to spend less money to get them to a
better place.
BP: Great. Thank you for your time Katelyn, this was very informative.
Bob Paolini, Esq., is Executive Director of
the Vermont Bar Association.

www.vtbar.org