Veterans Law
Detroit Mercy Law is dedicated to serving those who served our country. We offer courses in the area of Veterans Law and support for our student veterans.
"As a service-disabled veteran, I plan to allocate time to work with other veterans to ensure they have fair and reasonable access to justice and are duly compensated for the sacrifices they have made for the United States of America.”
Ryan Forsmo '23, U.S. Navy Veteran
Faculty
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Holly Christian
Holly Christian joined Detroit Mercy Law in 2021 as the first Toni A. Wisne Foundation Veterans Clinic Fellow. She was promoted to Director of the Veterans Law Clinic and Assistant Professor of Law in 2022. She is currently VA accredited, and barred in Illinois, pending admission in Michigan. She has represented low income and homeless veterans while employed at the ABA and Swords to Plowshares.
Clinics
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Veterans Law Clinic
Students participating in the Veterans’ Clinic will have the opportunity to represent military veterans and their families in disability cases and related matters. Students primarily will practice before the Department of Veterans Affairs to obtain veterans benefits for service-connected disabilities.
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Appellate Veterans Law Clinic
Students represent disabled veterans and/or their dependents before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (CAVC) in disability compensation appellate cases. Students will have the opportunity to obtain appellate litigation experience while performing pro bono service. They will also be learning the expectations, methods and technical aspects of representation before the CAVC. The CAVC Clinic will integrate administrative law and forensic medicine and develop the law and facts to pursue appeals by writing and filing the opening briefs and reply briefs for the Appellant.
Student Veteran Features
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Read Features of our Student Veterans
Veterans Law Society
The Veterans Law Society’s mission is to provide veterans in the Detroit Mercy Law community opportunities for fellowship, to increase awareness of legal issues affecting veterans, to connect members with Veteran alumni for networking purposes, to work with the law school’s administration to achieve fuller recognition of the value of Veterans in our community, to facilitate opportunities for students to provide assistance to Veterans in need, and to coordinate with the Dean of enrollment to improve outreach to prospective students with military backgrounds.
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Leadership