USC to expand veterans services after receiving $225,000 grant from Boeing

The University of South Carolina will be expanding free legal services for veterans, the university announced Thursday.

The expansion of services will include a customized vehicle that will provide legal services to rural areas of the state, thanks to a $225,000 grant from Boeing, USC and Boeing officials announced at a Veterans Day press conference.

The Veterans Legal Clinic, opened in 2018, provides veterans with help with family court, government benefits, housing and more.

Navy veteran Brooks Herring spoke during the press conference, saying he received help from an entire team of law students, staff, paralegals and more to assist him in family court.

When he first registered for legal services, Herring said he didn’t expect to get much out of it.

“I couldn’t imagine seeing my son every weekend, let alone every day,” Herring said.

After receiving the help of USC’s legal services in a custody case, “I came away with my son,” Herring said.

One of the former students who helped Herring’s case, Nicole Jackson, said at the press conference the clinic was able to give her experience in real-world cases, a welcome break from the often-hypothetical nature of law school.

Veterans are close to Jackson’s heart, she said. Her grandfather was a prisoner of war in WWII and her best friend received a Purple Heart during the Iraq War, she said.

The Veterans Legal Clinic has an annual budget of $220,000, which means the $225,000 grant “will carry us for the next couple years,” said Jaclyn Cherry, USC’s director of legal clinics.

The point of the Veterans Legal Clinic is not just to help veterans who walk in for services, but also to train future lawyers on how to represent those who served in the military, said William Hubbard, the dean of USC’s School of Law.

USC’s veterans services has come a long way since 2015, when the university had only one person on campus to process Veterans Affairs benefits, said Jared Evans, USC’s director of military engagement and veteran initiatives. Since then, USC has launched the Veterans Alumni Council, opened a program to allow service members at the Parris Island Marine Corps post an opportunity to get a degree without coming to Columbia and lowered tuition for active-duty military students, according to a news release from USC.

“You know how hard it is to freeze tuition, let alone lower it?” Evans said.