On Friday, July 19th, the California Women’s Law Center (CWLC) was joined by the Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center, the Inner City Law Center, Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County Bar Association, the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office, Public Counsel and Levitt & Quinn to provide a wide range of services to women veterans at the Third Annual Female Veterans Stand Down hosted by the United States Veterans Initiative (U.S. Vets). CWLC was proud to organize this collaboration between non-profit, private and government attorneys. The Stand Down took place in Long Beach, California and is the largest event of its kind in the country.
Stand Down events are intervention programs designed to connect veterans to needed legal, medical and other services at no cost. Conscious of the unique needs and experiences of female veterans, U.S. Vets sponsored this all-female Stand Down. Female veteran events encourage higher attendance as many women are hesitant to attend an event with male service members.
CWLC and our partners coordinated the legal services component of the event which brings together state and local resources and caters to the needs of returning female service members and their families. Legal service providers were carefully chosen to ensure the services provided matched the needs of those in attendance.
Laurie Aronoff, the Pro Bono Director for the Los Angeles County Bar Association, was in attendance as well as Elizabeth Warner-Sterkenburg who is a 30-year veteran of the Public Defender’s Office. These county resources proved invaluable because Ms. Aronoff and the County Bar brought private attorneys to provide free consultations and consider many of these cases for further action.
Ms. Warner-Sterkenburg coordinated with public defenders offices across the state in advance of the Stand Down and on the day of the event, Ms. Warner-Sterkenburg was able to call each public defender’s office and get nearly immediate answers about veterans’ cases so that on-site attorneys could take action.
This years’ Stand Down assisted over 50 women veterans with their legal needs.
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