Bar Association offers help to Las Vegas veterans

Veterans in need of legal aid to help appeal disability ratings, secure benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs and resolve domestic matters can attend an open house Friday at U.S. Vets-Las Vegas.

The Project Salute event is sponsored by the American Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Section, said Young Kevin Kam, a law clerk for the Clark County district attorney’s office civil division.

“We have seven pro bono attorneys volunteering their time,” said Kam, 37, a 1998 graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and an Iraq War veteran.

“The project is for lawyers to help veterans appeal disability ratings and ensure they receive benefits. And we help with any other problems involving family law, bankruptcy, eviction and child custody,” he said.

He knows firsthand about VA bureaucracy and red tape.

“It needs to be more streamlined,” he said about the system. “In becoming a volunteer attorney you have to be accredited by Veterans Affairs, and that took about 90 to 120 days,” he said, adding, “Americans should love its veterans as much as veterans love America.”

Professor Tammy Kudialis of University of Detroit Mercy School of Law created Project Salute in 2007. The first event in Nevada was Nov. 12 thanks to support from District Attorney Steve Wolfson and Clark County Counsel Mary-Ann Miller.

Friday’s Project Salute initiative will be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the U.S. Vets building, 525 E. Bonanza Road.

Veterans should bring a copy of their DD-214 discharge paper.