Veterans Law Prof Blog

NLSVCC Holds Biennial Conference, Elects Three New Board Members (by Jennifer Morrell, Delaware Law School Veterans Law Clinic)

On June 23 and June 24, the National Law School Veterans Clinic Consortium held its biennial conference, the first since before COVID. The event, held virtually, was free for members and law students, and featured two prominent keynote speakers—Judge William S. Greenburg of the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims and Mel Bostwick, a partner in the Supreme Court and Appellate practice of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe.  

The conference featured topics such as character of discharge and discharge upgrade cases, advocating for Native American veterans, burn pits, law school clinic best practices, and electronic VA access. The innovative conference platform allowed for attendee interaction before and between sessions. 

NLSVCC held its annual members meeting the first day of the conference, and outgoing President Matt Wilcut announced the newly elected board members:  

• Samantha Kubek, Assistant Clinical Law Professor and Director of the Robert W. Entenmann Veterans Law Clinic at Hofstra Law School (three-year term). 
• Samantha Stiltner, Director of University of Detroit Mercy’s Veterans Legal Clinic (three-year term). 
• Judy Clausen, Legal Skills Professor and Supervising Attorney for the Veterans and Servicemembers Legal Clinic at the University of Florida Levin College of Law (two-year term).  

Matt also announced the winners of the Consortium’s annual awards. Outgoing board member Angela Drake, Director of the Veterans Clinic and Instructor at the University of Missouri School of Law, was honored with the Dave Myers award for her tremendous and far-reaching collaboration, which extends to multiple committees, including the amicus, legislative, and conference committees. Private attorney Robert Davis was selected for this year’s Tom Reed award, which is given to someone who consistently participates in discussions and advances the profession by sharing their vast knowledge with others on the veterans clinic listserv and beyond. Robert was recognized for providing countless hours of solid legal advice to his peers.  

VA Office of the Inspector General Report Exposes C&P Exam Vendor Issues (by Jennifer Morrell, Delaware Law School Veterans Law Clinic)

Last month, the VA Office of the Inspector General (VAOIG) released a report exposing the subpar performance of the companies providing Compensation & Pensions examinations (C&P exams) for veterans in connection with their claims and appeals. The report does not come as a shock to anyone practicing veteran benefits law, but it should be alarming to the general public and to the veteran population. Why? The bottom line is that the contractors are making a significant number of mistakes, they were not being held accountable for the mistakes, and the mistakes were not being communicated to the VA employees who were issuing decisions based on these erroneous exams. All three companies were charged with maintaining an accuracy level of 92 percent. However, all three vendors have been below that threshold since at least 2017.  One vendor’s accuracy rate has been between 66-74 percent since 2017. The second vendor’s accuracy rate has been 72-78 percent since 2017. The third vendor’s accuracy rate has been between 87-88 percent since 2017. The VAOIG made four specific recommendations to improve the program, and VA—as of the date of the report—has taken action on at least two recommendations and has plans for corrective action regarding the final two recommendations.  

The report, released June 8, can be found here.