Bench & Bar March/April 2025

FEATURE: MILITARY LAW

BY TAMARA REID-MCINTOSH, JD, PHD FOR KENTUCKY’S VETERANS THROUGH FORCE MULTIPLICATION IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF LEGAL SERVICES

I have been a Ken tucky attorney and university professor for approximately 20 years. Before my path to law school had fully mate rialized however, I became a Persian Gulf Era disabled combat

of veterans’ ability to hire attorneys, but rather a question of whether attorneys who are hired understand the unique and often traumatic circumstances faced by military service members, veterans, and their fam ilies, which precipitate the need for legal services in the first instance. The Commonwealth’s Department of Veterans Affairs has a statutory mandate, “to assist veterans and their families and dependents in the presentation, proof, and establishment of all claims, privileges, rights, and other benefits which they may have under federal, state, or local laws, and to cooperate with all national, state, and local government and private agencies securing services or any benefits to veterans, their families, and dependents.” 1 Although KRS 40.310 does not overtly encompass the provision of competent legal support in civil

or criminal matters, legal guidance is often the conduit that affords transitioning mili tary members, veterans, and their families the ability to effectively procure the rights and privileges that their honorable military service affords them at the state and federal levels. Since joining OVLS, I have been inundated with inquiries from veterans, residing throughout the Commonwealth, seeking legal assistance—with civil matters, pre dominantly—that once addressed, would advance or improve the quality of their lives. As there are at least 100 veterans residing in each of the Commonwealth’s 120 counties, I had to begin by determining whether each county offered competent legal services to veterans. 2

veteran after honorably serving as an Airman in the United States Air Force. It was the combination of military service and a law school education that set me on the trajectory of gaining the most important lesson of my personal and professional life: leveraging servant leadership to improve legal services for Kentucky’s veterans and their families. I have been privileged to interact with mili tary service members and veterans in every facet of my legal career. However, it was not until I began practicing law in the military and veteran sphere—after a post-COVID19 career shift—that I found my calling to con tinue to serve the Commonwealth and the nation by working to effectuate a notable change in the lives of the veterans and their families. After spending a year serving as associ ate counsel for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and another two years serving as legal counsel for the Office of Veteran Legal Services (OVLS) within the Commonwealth’s Department of Veterans Affairs, I realized that the need for qual ity legal services for veterans—beyond the defense of disability benefit claims before the USVA’s Board of Veterans Appeals (BVA) or the U.S. Court of Appeals for Vet erans Claims (CAVC)—is not a question

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