THL: You made expanded legal services to veterans the focus of your administration. What unmet needs did you see that led you to develop the Veterans’ Legal Initiative?

Sales: I wanted to give something back to our veterans and believed that many other Houston lawyers did as well. I had read about the backlog of veteran disability claims and the legal hurdles many veterans were facing. We did some research and found that Harris County has one of the largest populations of veterans of any county in America. We also found that we have a large number of homeless veterans and veterans who do not have the wherewithal to pay for their basic legal needs. The HBA, through the Houston Volunteer Lawyers Program and the Beirne, Maynard & Parsons, L.L.P. law firm, had begun a once a month, three hour free legal clinic at the DeBakey VA Medical Center, but that was the only service listed by our city and county to provide legal services to veterans. I felt strongly that those who had served our country and protected our freedoms and the rule of law should have full access to our justice system. So clearly there was and remains a serious unmet need to provide that access to all our veterans.

THL: What are the components of the initiative?

Sales: First, we dramatically expanded our free legal clinics at the DeBakey VA Medical Center. Now, every Friday from 2 to 5 p.m. we have volunteer lawyers and staff counsel from HVLP provide free legal counseling to any veterans and their families. Veterans can either sign up for an appointment or simply walk-up. The clinic is just around the corner from the Emergency Room entrance. We also expanded the income threshold for veterans to be able to access a free attorney through HVLP. Typically, the HVLP income cut-off for having a lawyer assigned to an ongoing matter is 175 percent of the poverty level. Because our veterans’ initiative is designed both to help low-income veterans and to say thank you to all our veterans, we expanded that cut-off for veterans to 300 percent of the poverty level.

We also developed a program to provide a speaker on legal topics of interest and volunteers to provide counseling to veterans recovering from homelessness, addiction, or disability at the US Vets at Midtown Terrace residence and at the DeGeorge at Union Station residence. We also began a dialogue with local commanders of the American Legion and VFW as to their members’ needs. We held our first Saturday legal clinics specifically for veterans and their families at an American Legion Post and at a VFW post on February 28, 2009 from 9 a.m. to noon. We also held training sessions for lawyers on handling veterans’ legal issues including disability claims. We served homeless veterans and those in serious need at the Stand Down program at the George R. Brown Convention Center. And we hired a full time staff lawyer at HVLP whose job will be to oversee and to grow the veterans’ initiative. We want this to be an evergreen program that lives on and expands.

THL: What has been the response to calls for volunteers?

Sales: Tremendous. Houston lawyers are always generous with their time, talent and treasures, and they have been especially so with our veterans’ initiative. I think this initiative has also really appealed to many lawyers who want to give back but who have historically not found a pro bono project that appeals to them. We have approximately 200 new lawyer volunteers to help veterans. Our Friday legal clinics are well-staffed with volunteer attorneys, and our American Legion and VFW clinics drew a great showing of volunteers. Over 100 attorneys came to our training on veteran disability issues. That’s not to say that we would not very much welcome additional volunteers. Our veterans most certainly need you.

THL: How many veterans have been helped through the program, and what has been the feedback from veterans and veteran organizations?

Sales: Our Friday clinics at the VA are now drawing on average about 25 veterans every week. We served over 50 veterans at the Saturday American Legion and VFW clinics in February. We serve over 100 veterans who reside at the US Vets at Midtown Terrace and another 20-30 veterans who reside at DeGeorge. We soon will have served over 1,000 veterans. This does not take into account the veterans who are now accessing HVLP directly through our efforts to let our veterans know about the services available to them.

THL: What are future plans for the Veterans’ Legal Initiative?

Sales: As I mentioned, we want the program to maintain and grow. We have a full-time staff attorney at HVLP who will oversee the program. The Houston Bar Foundation is generously supporting the program. Next year, we will hold the Saturday morning legal clinic at either an American Legion Post or VFW Post in conjunction with Veterans’ Day. We may consider additional clinics for the posts. We have a large number of older veterans who do not have proper estate planning documents and we would like to help rectify that situation. We hope to expand our stable of attorneys capable of handling the more complicated disability claims process and appeals. We have to some degree already “adopted” the US Vets at Midtown Terrace and have provided books for the library and packages for their Christmas party. We would like to help with refurbishing the kitchen at the facility. We also would welcome additional ideas to help with the sad situation of homeless veterans.

Interview conducted by Keri Brown, an associate at Baker Botts L.L.P. and a member of The Houston Lawyer editorial board.