Next time you question whether or not you have the time to commit to pro bono services, think about Alex Straub. Straub, a public defender with the Associated Counsel for the Accused (ACA), is currently on indefinite leave from the ACA because he was called back to active duty for the Washington National Guard, where he serves as a Judge Advocate, or JAG officer.
As this article was being written, he was busy working seven days a week helping prepare 3,500 Washington National Guard troops for deployment to Iraq last month. According to a close colleague at the ACA, Straub gets to the office around 7:30 a.m. and works straight through the day, often not leaving until after 10 p.m. In fact, he hasn’t had a day off since July 6, when he returned from his honeymoon. But somehow among the chaos, he has found the time to help set up a program called Attorneys Assisting Citizen-Soldiers & Families, or AACF for short.
AACF is a National Guard program and is administered with the assistance of the Washington State Bar Association Legal Assistance for Military Personnel (LAMP) program. Straub, along with LAMP President Adam Torem, WSBA liaison Moni Law, Randall Winn and Anne Marie Leigh, immediately recognized the need for the program earlier this year when the 81st Brigade Combat team, a Washington National Guard unit, received notification that it would be deployed to Iraq in August and Straub was called up to provide legal assistance to the brigade for its mobilization.
The purpose of AACF is to provide pro bono legal services to members of the Washington National Guard and their families. “Deployments of National Guard members can require them to be away from their families for long periods of time and can inhibit their ability to assist their families with the many everyday issues that can arise,” Straub said.
“Legal issues, especially, can seriously impact the citizen-soldier’s family, who often times have very limited knowledge of the law and are left to handle the situation themselves,” Straub continued.
“Families of National Guard members, unlike families of active duty soldiers, live all over Washington and are usually not conveniently located near a military legal assistance office,” he said. “When legal issues arise, these can place a tremendous amount of stress and anxiety on the family while the citizen-soldier is serving thousands of miles away in a combat zone.”
A common concern faced by those the program serves is a landlord who refuses to let the Guard member and his or her family out of their residential lease early or tries to charge an exorbitant fee for doing so. Other problems include Guard members’ families facing eviction or creditors attempting to repossess the families’ property. Unfortunately, Guard members often are not in the best financial position to hire an attorney because their regular income is lost when they are called to active duty and have to leave their civilian jobs.
The most rewarding part of the program, Straub says, “has been ensuring that citizen-soldiers are not taken advantage of or prejudiced as a result of their call to active duty for deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan.” He added, “This significantly reduced the stress and anxiety these soldiers were facing and allowed them to focus on their training, which could possibly save their lives when they are deployed in a combat zone.”
Straub himself knows the stress that comes with deployment. In late 2003, while in his third year of law school at Seattle University, his National Guard unit was called up for deployment to Iraq. He put his studies on hold until 2005 when he returned, finished law school, passed the bar and started practicing criminal law. In 2006, he became a JAG officer.
Straub explains that the program owes its existence to attorneys and legal specialists across Washington who have volunteered their time to assist the troops and their families. Anyone interested in joining AACF or learning more about it can contact him at 253-512-8262 or by email at Alexander.straub@us.army.mil. Potential volunteers also can find more information at http://aacf.wordpress.com/ and sign up online. Additionally, anyone interested in joining the ABA military pro bono project can contact Project Director Jason Vail at vailj@staff.abanet.org or by phone at 312-988-5783.
Attorneys and legal professionals are strongly encouraged to support and contribute to AACF. While one can debate the merits of our nation’s foreign policy, there is no question that these National Guard members have made tremendous sacrifices and have put their civilian lives on hold so that they may protect and serve our country and local communities. This program offers the legal community an opportunity to make a small, but extraordinarily meaningful sacrifice that can bring great comfort to the families of our soldiers.
Thomas M. O'Toole, Ph.D. is a consultant at Tsongas Litigation Consulting, Inc. He received his doctoral degree in Legal Communication and Psychology from the University of Kansas and is a member of the American Society of Trial Consultants.
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