(Pictured: ACBF Treasurer Jennifer Brust, M-VETS Director Timothy MacArthur and Deputy Director Leigh Winstead)
The Mason Veterans and Servicemembers Legal Clinic (“M-VETS”) received a $1,500 grant from the Arlington County Bar Foundation (“ACBF”) to support M-VETS’s pro bono legal work in the Arlington community. The grant was presented to M-VETS at the Grantee Reception held at the Arlington County Courthouse on June 27, 2023. Among other recipients honored for their charitable work in the community, M-VETS was presented with the award by ACBF Chair, Paul Ferguson and Treasurer, Jennifer Brust.
“We are incredibly grateful to the Arlington County Bar Foundation for their continued support of the clinic,” M-VETS Director, Timothy MacArthur said. “The ACBF plays a vital role in supporting Arlington charitable organizations and we are honored to be recognized alongside our fellow grantees.”
M-VETS’s grant application is part of a capital campaign to seek funding for a third attorney to staff a new M-VETS office located in the American Legion Post 139. Also an ACBF grant recipient, Post 139 partnered with M-VETS to provide office space in its newly redeveloped headquarters in Arlington which is situated on the ground floor of an affordable housing apartment complex with veteran-reserved units. M-VETS recently opened the Post 139 office to provide free legal consultations to veterans, service members, and their dependents. M-VETS is currently accepting appointments for the Post 139 Advice and Referral Clinic through its website: https://mvets.law.gmu.edu/apply/.
“We are very excited to partner with American Legion Post 139 in opening our new Advice and Referral Legal Clinic,” said MacArthur. “This grant is an important building block in our capital campaign to make the third staff attorney position permanently self-sustaining and further expand the legal services offered by M-VETS.”
In addition to recognizing grantees, the ACBF presented the Campbell-Smith-Thompson Award to Scalia Law School’s own Ilissa T. Belanger, a director of the ACFB and newly-retired Senior Associate Director of Career Services and Co-Director of Externship Programs at Scalia Law School. The Campbell-Smith-Thompson Award is presented to the Foundation Board Member who has made extraordinary contributions to the philanthropic mission of the ACBF. The Arlington County Bar Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the Arlington County Bar Association. The Foundation assists local charities through the dissemination of grants and personnel support.
M-VETS provides free legal services to veterans, service members, and their dependents in a variety of civil matters, including uncontested divorces, landlord/tenant matters, consumer protection, and contract disputes, as well as in military/VA administrative matters, including MEB/PEBs, Discharge Upgrades, Boards for Correction of Military Records, and VA disability compensation appeals.