By Kara Baskin
law community
When low-income veterans return from military service, they may face an unexpected battle: navigating legal hurdles such as eviction, foreclosure, child custody, and military benefits. These problems would be daunting for anyone; for a veteran who might also cope with various service-related impairments, the obstacles are even greater.
Enter Suffolk Law’s Veterans Legal Advocacy Project (VLAP), set to launch this January. It aims to pair the legal skills of Suffolk Law students and faculty with the pressing needs of veterans facing legal challenges. The project was made possible with funding from Suffolk Construction, as well as law firm Hinckley Allen and Jay Tangney, JD ’96, Suffolk’s executive vice president and general counsel.
“Veterans sacrifice for this country,” says Tangney, who also serves as a member of Suffolk Law’s Dean’s Cabinet. “I’m sure we can do more to support them and bring more visibility into the issues they face daily.”
The goal is to find advocates who can assist veterans facing various challenges: those struggling to use their housing vouchers, those at risk of homelessness, those needing proper legal representation for criminal charges, or those seeking to upgrade their general discharge status to honorable, Tangney says. “Most people in such a situation don’t know where to start.”
A Navy veteran himself, Tangney was commissioned during his second year at Suffolk Law and went on active duty after graduation. “There are an awful lot of veterans who go to Suffolk, and we’re hoping to get many of them, as well as many non-military students, involved in the effort,” he says.
VLAP will provide legal services to veterans referred to Suffolk Law by community partners, including longtime Suffolk Construction partner Home Base—a national nonprofit that provides free clinical care, wellness training, education, and research aid to veterans, service members, military families, and families of the fallen.
Suffolk Law’s Accelerator-to-Practice Program will be a key partner in this initiative. Through the Accelerator, student lawyers represent low- and moderate-income individuals who often struggle to access the justice system. The team’s work includes helping families retain their homes, ensuring safe and sanitary living conditions, and holding landlords and brokers accountable for discriminatory practices.
The veterans project will also include Suffolk Law’s Housing Discrimination Testing Program (HDTP), aiming to combat discrimination against veterans using housing vouchers. Ashley Grant, enforcement director and clinical fellow in the program, notes that there’s a huge amount of discrimination against people attempting to use low-income housing vouchers, veterans among them. The HDTP’s undercover study in 2020 found that voucher holders in Greater Boston faced discrimination 90% of the time.
The housing issue is especially grave due to Boston’s general housing shortage. “We know that the housing crisis is deeply impacting veterans,” Grant says, “and we’re excited about expanding the work that we’ve already started—reaching out to veterans to provide services on a bigger scale.”
Clinical Professor James Matthews, faculty director of the Accelerator program, emphasizes Suffolk’s history of providing strong experiential education to students while serving the community. “One of the great things about our clinical program is that it covers a wide range of legal areas,” he says. “That positions us to support veterans across a wide range of practice areas.”
Tangney highlights Suffolk Law’s long tradition of supporting the military and veterans, especially through its evening program. “Most people coming off active duty have to work,” he says. “Suffolk’s evening division provides this group an opportunity to go to an outstanding law school and make a living.”
In a nation grappling with a divide between those who serve and those who benefit from that service, the VLAP offers a bridge. “When these students step up to help a veteran navigate the labyrinth of legal challenges, they’re not just honing their skills,” Tangney says. “They’re continuing a tradition of service to others that defines both the military and the legal profession.”
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winter 2025
Photograph by Adobe
Suffolk Law Dean’s Cabinet member Jay Tangney, JD ’96. Photograph by Michael J. Clarke