With 2,000 Billable Hours, Add 300 More for Veterans

Daniel Sylvester, a third-year associate at Holland & Knight, is anything but a typical young lawyer.

Sylvester spent more than 10 years in the U.S. Army, stationed overseas in Germany, Italy and Croatia. After leaving the army in 1999, he had a second career as an executive recruiter, met and married his wife, who had served two tours of duty in Iraq and now suffers from post traumatic stress disorder. Eventually, he wound up in law school at DePaul University College of Law.

Sylvester, now 49, is an associate in addition to his work in the firm’s financial services team, and also chairs its veterans group. That group, with approximately 200 active participants, both lawyers and staff located throughout the firm’s 20 offices, provide pro bono legal work and community service. In addition, he serves on the board of directors for Volunteers of America — Illinois, which has a multitude of programs for veterans, as well as the Veterans Leadership Council, a new organization based in Chicago for veterans working in corporate jobs to form a social and business network.

His billable work doesn’t suffer, Sylvester says. He is “on target for over 2,000 billable hours this year” and estimates that he will put in an additional 100-300 hours on his veterans activities.

“It’s really hard to say since it’s just something I do naturally,” he said.

[caption id="attachment_5624" align="alignleft” width="340"][Image “Daniel Sylvester, center, receives North East Illinois Governor’s Volunteer Service Award in 2013. " (src=https://bol.bna.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Vet-photo-e1447258345372.jpg)]Daniel Sylvester, center, receives the North East Illinois Governor’s Volunteer Service Award in 2013.[/caption]

While Sylvester and Holland & Knight stand out in their work for veterans, other lawyers and firms are also increasing their efforts to help veterans through pro bono programs as well as trying to hire lawyers who have served in the military.

DLA Piper counts “Serving Those Who Serve Our Country” as one of its signature projects which provides a range of legal services to veterans as well as active military. Of counsel Richard Gruenberger heads the efforts, and in an interview he explained that more than 100 lawyers and staff participate. The results show in billable hours: last year pro bono hours attributed to work for veterans exceeded 13,000 he said.

The work is far-ranging and includes help securing housing, reconnecting veterans with family members and “setting up legal clinics on VA campuses, something that the VA didn’t allow until 2011,” Gruenberger said.

Some firms, like Faegre Baker Daniels, have participated in programs sponsored by the American Bar Association under the Standing Committee on Legal Assistance for Military Personnel, a group which helps provide legal assistance to those who have served in the military . Monica Fennell, a pro bono manager at Faegre Baker said the firm, among its efforts to help the military, participated in the Veterans’ Claims Assistance Network, a pilot project to help those seeking disability benefits with the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs. The project, which hasn’t yet been renewed, was intended to help eliminate the backlog of disability claims.

But helping veterans isn’t just about pro bono work.

Several firms in May participated in a newly-created legal career fair for veterans . Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe partnered with the American Legion along with sponsors Shearman & Sterling , Microsoft Corp., Morgan Stanley, ALM Media and the D.C. Diverse Partners Network to launch a career fair devoted primarily to lawyers who have served in the spring. During the first weekend in May, the program allowed lawyers as well as some paralegals to meet with prospective corporate employers.

Christina Guerola Sarchio, an Orrick partner and the spouse of a veteran, said that firm chair Mitchell Zuklie had spearheaded the program which will be repeated in 2016.

Many of the lawyers at the fair were part of the Judge Advocate General Corps, more commonly known as the JAG Corps, in their respective branches. “Some were JAG lawyers with 20 years of experience who had done almost everything including contracts, criminal work and appellate law.”

That breadth of the candidates was both impressive and challenging, she said. “These weren’t specialists — while they had incredible experiences, including in combat, they needed help in packaging those experiences so they could sell themselves in the business world,” Sarchio said.

[caption id="attachment_5625" align="alignright” width="340"][Image “An attendee enters a veteran job and career expo in Glen Ellyn, Illinois in 2012. Photog by Tim Boyle/Bloomberg” (src=https://bol.bna.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/m1069321-e1447258698686.jpg)]Photo by Tim Boyle/Bloomberg[/caption]

Orrick wasn’t the only one to participate. Several other firms including Latham & Watkins, Kaye Scholer and Schulte Roth & Zabel interviewed as well.

Schulte partner Taleah Jennings likened the process — with its back-to-back interviews of candidates — to on-campus recruiting efforts. Like Sarchio, Jennings said the candidates were much more diverse than the typical law school pool, “not in terms of ethnicity, race or gender, but in terms of their experience. Some had just graduated while some had been practicing for a long time.”

The one area where there was less diversity: the type of work the veterans had done while in JAG. Most were litigators. As a result, Schulte eventually hired two for its litigation department, Jennings said.

Often the JAG lawyers will be considered part of a class with associates who graduated a few years later. The assignment is to give the lawyers a chance to learn the legal skills they may not have acquired while in the military and to acclimate to the private sector, explained Kaye Scholer partner Jim Herschlein, whose firm hired a veteran from the career fair.

The assignment, however, isn’t necessarily permanent, and can be reevaluated after the lawyer has worked at the firm as part of the annual review process.

Of Kaye Scholer’s hired vet, Herschlein said, “We know that she’s had great experience on her feet as part of JAG.”

Those skills acquired through military service should, these lawyers said, translate well in a law firm setting. As Orrick’s Sarchio said, hiring veterans “brings people to the firm who have talents and new ways of solving problems.”