Veterans Programs

Orrick is committed to supporting veterans and their spouses in our hiring, in the career development of our attorneys and staff, and in advocating for the veteran community through our pro bono efforts. We have been proactive in carrying out this goal. When we wanted to hire veterans who are lawyers but couldn’t find a venue to source experienced attorneys, we created one. Our annual Veterans’ Legal Career Fair – the first and only of its kind in the United States – is one of the many ways we work with the legal community to support the women and men who have served our country.

We also have an active Veterans' Forum to support our own vets, led by Nikiforos Mathews, who served as a Judge Advocate in the U.S. Army Reserve, and Anne Savin, who served as an officer in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Corp. And we are performing innovative pro bono work on such issues as discharge upgrades for veterans separated from the military due to PTSD.

Veterans Forum

Orrick’s Veterans Forum comprises partners, counsel, associates and staff who have served, in active duty or the reserves, in any branch of the military or national guard worldwide.

The Veterans Forum serves as a firmwide, global community for veterans. Its goals are to:

• Establish an internal network of our attorneys and staff to share experiences and provide mentoring and support to one another and our families, including in connection with deployments.
• Create opportunities for veteran attorneys to share their unique experiences and expertise within the firm to facilitate the creation of new best practices.
• Support and bring greater visibility to veteran causes, including by bringing awareness to issues of importance to veterans by sponsoring presentations, events and panel discussions. Topics have included presentations on PTSD, a practical learning session on navigating discharge characterization upgrades and an overview of JAG legal services during deployment, and a successful conversation and panel discussions featuring the Honorable Jeh Johnson, former Secretary of Homeland Security, in recognition of the 10th anniversary of the repeal of the U.S. government’s “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” policy. 
• Take a leadership role in proposing, supporting and staffing pro bono efforts in connection with veteran causes, including military discharge upgrades, assisting veteran small business owners and representing veterans or their survivors in pursuing disability claims.
• Commemorate Memorial Day, Veterans’ Day and similar holidays recognizing the contributions of members of the military.
• Actively participate in the Veterans’ Legal Career Fair, which provides a platform for active duty, reserve, retired and former members of the military, as well as their spouses, to network and interview for public and private sector jobs with employers interested in hiring veterans.
• Engage in public service projects, including cleaning up military monuments and assembling hundreds of personalized care packages for deployed National Guard soldiers.
• Partner with nonprofit FORGE, raising thousands of dollars for its Overwatch Project aimed at suicide prevention, and representing FORGE on numerous legal projects on a pro bono basis.  
• Make recommendations on how we might support and enhance the development of our veteran attorneys and the efforts of clients who value veteran employees and support veteran causes.

Veterans’ Legal Career Fair

Our Veterans’ Legal Career Fair is the only legal career fair in the United States dedicated to lawyers who have served in the military and  their spouses. Since we launched this annual event in 2015, we have helped over 600 active service members and veterans connect with top legal employers such as Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Deloitte, the Central Intelligence Agency, Bank of America, Juniper Networks, the Department of Homeland Security and Goldman Sachs.

Active-duty service members travel from U.S. military installations around the world, joining veterans and their spouses in Washington, D.C., to participate in a full day of interviews, panel discussions and an open career fair. Over 40 employers from across the U.S., including law firms, corporate legal departments and government agencies, participate each year. One attendee, who received a job offer through the fair, said, “This fair really is making a difference in the lives of attendees – and I can say that now from personal experience.” 

Advocating for Veterans

Supporting veterans and active-duty service members is a fundamental part of Orrick’s culture. We have won multiple appellate cases protecting benefits for thousands of veterans while also advocating for veterans in administrative proceedings, working with the National Veterans Legal Services Program, The Veterans Consortium and Swords to Plowshares.   

We’ve helped many clients petition the U.S. Department of Defense for discharge upgrades, which is a key step toward getting their lives on track. We won a precedent-setting Federal Circuit case establishing a pathway to benefits for Blue Water Navy vets exposed to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. We also won another precedent-setting case for veterans when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit allowed a class action to proceed against the Department of Veteran’s Affairs on behalf of thousands of veterans whose appeals had been improperly closed out due to a computer malfunction. The decision provides a path for these veterans to gain benefits for service-related disabilities. And we’re arguing an appeal during the 2024-2025 U.S. Supreme Court term for an Air Force veteran stemming from an administrative veterans court’s denial of a PTSD benefits claim. 

In another case, our team established new precedent for vets who seek benefits for pain-related disabilities. Now these vets can receive benefits after decades of government refusal to issue them. Another pro bono team helped define what constitutes “in the line of duty,” securing benefits for our client after a 15-year fight. We also helped two military veterans obtain increases in benefits for ongoing conditions resulting from sexual assaults while in the military. 

This work continues through our collaboration with the New York County Lawyers’ Association to create an innovative program to help veterans suffering from PTSD to upgrade the characterization of their discharge and obtain important medical and other veterans’ benefits. 

Together with the National LGBT Bar Association, our lawyers successfully represented three transgender veterans who petitioned the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy to modify military records to reflect their correct names and identities. The executive director of the National LGBT Bar called the outcome a “life-changing victory.” 

Our Community and Law School Partners

We partner with many other organizations that serve veterans, including:

• National Veterans Legal Services Program
• The Veterans Consortium
• Overwatch Project
• Lawyers Serving Warriors
• New York City Bar Justice Center’s Veterans Assistance Project
• Swords to Plowshares
• Urban Justice Center Veterans Advocacy Project
• Transgender American Veterans Association
• National Association of Veterans’ Research and Education Foundations
• Wear Blue: Run to Remember

We helped found and continue to counsel others, including:

• American Women Veterans
• Heroes’ Voices
• High Ground Veterans Advocacy

We also work with law schools:

• We sponsor a fellowship at Stanford Law School that enables a veteran law student to pursue a project to benefit other veterans.
• Working with the University of Michigan Law School, we launched the Veterans Legal Clinic.
• We participate in events hosted by the Military Law Society at Georgetown University Law Center.
• We work with New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering Veterans Future Lab, which is an incubator dedicated to ventures led by veterans, military spouses, and DoD affiliates.