Wildman Harrold To Help Launch Pro Bono Program Aimed at Supporting Illinois National Guard Units
Adopt A Guard Unit Program Will Provide Community Support and Legal Assistance
CHICAGO – November 11, 2008 – Wildman, Harrold, Allen & Dixon LLP announced today that it will serve as the pilot law firm in helping to launch a pro bono initiative aimed at providing legal assistance and community support to Illinois National Guard Units. Established by the Illinois Attorney General’s Office of Veterans Rights, the goals of the program, called Adopt A Guard Unit, are two-fold: to maintain correspondence with service members and their communities, showing support for their sacrifices; and secondly, to provide legal assistance to soldiers and their families, thereby serving them while they serve us.
“It is fitting that we are launching this program on Veteran’s Day, to remember the duty that we have to the many brave men and women from Illinois who are defending our freedom,” said Matthew Garrett, a partner in Wildman Harrold’s Litigation Department and the firm’s liaison for the Adopt A Guard Unit Program. “There is a tremendous need to help the soldiers overseas feel connected back home, to the society they are protecting. Wildman Harrold is proud to partner with the Illinois Attorney General’s Office to help lead the way.”
Currently there is a crippling lack of legal resources available to veterans, service members, and their dependents. The Illinois National Guard is preparing to send more than 2,700 members to Afghanistan, its largest deployment since World War II. The civilian legal community can augment the military legal community and serve as force multipliers by informing service members and their families of the benefits and protections to which they are entitled before, during, and after deployment. To a large extent, it is the Illinois community that serves as the support system for these citizen-soldiers. In order to fill this need, the Illinois Attorney General’s Office, the Illinois State Bar Association, and the Commission on Professionalism of the Illinois Supreme Court are attempting to build a state-wide network that will support the service members and their families in their local communities.
The legal service component of the program will address the common legal issues that arise in conjunction with the deployment of service members, such as reemployment request issues and matters related to the Family Medical Leave Act; the Service Member's Employment Tenure Act; the Illinois Patriot Act Plan; the Line of Duty Compensation Act; the Illinois Human Rights Act; and the Service Members Civil Relief Act, among others.
The first unit to be adopted by Wildman Harrold will be the 33rd Brigade Combat Team’s Headquarters Unit, consisting of approximately 200 soldiers and their families, headquartered in Urbana. This unit is currently serving in Afghanistan.
In addition to his involvement with the Adopt A Guard Unit Program, Garrett serves on the Board of Advisors to the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago’s Veterans’ Rights Project, and maintains an active pro bono practice focused on helping veterans obtain benefits to which they are entitled.
About Wildman Harrold
Wildman, Harrold, Allen & Dixon LLP is a 200-lawyer business law firm based in Chicago representing Fortune 500 companies and private businesses in Litigation, Business Transactions and Intellectual Property. The national Litigation practice is recognized as one of the best in the country and was selected by Corporate Counsel magazine as a “Go-To” Law Firm. The Transactions Department provides legal counsel on all corporate matters with a highly specialized practice for private equity funds. The Intellectual Property practice addresses the full-range of IP issues, including a premier team of Privacy and Data Security attorneys.