Veterans Legal Justice
Founded in 2022
Veterans Legal Justice launched operations and began accepting clients for intake on Veterans Day, 2022. We service veterans, service members, and their families, by providing referrals to lawyers in virtually every area of the law. Veterans Legal Justice stands out among veterans organizations because we define "veteran" a bit differently. The way we see it, if you or a member of your family have put on the uniform, even one day, you can come to us and get help with any legal needs.
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We can receive intake inquiries by phone or email. Please note that we are not a law firm, and cannot provide legal counsel ourselves; however, we pride ourselves on knowing the best of the best lawyers in the State of New Hampshire, and we will happily connect you with one of them, according to your needs. We have volunteers operating the phone line during business hours, all of whom have been trained in our specific method of intake, as well as veterans cultural awareness. All voice messages are automatically transcribed, so if you are unable to reach someone, or call outside of business hours, rest assured that your message was received, and someone will be getting back to you soon!
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Once your intake inquiry is received, volunteers, in coordination with Veterans Legal Justice's board of directors, will correspond with one of New Hampshire's finest lawyers in the area of law that most fits your needs.
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Veterans Legal Justice was honored to receive an invitation to the 2022 Seacoast Veterans Conference at Service Credit Union in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. There, Larry Vogelman, one of our board members and founding members, had the privilege of announcing the organization's launch.
Veterans Legal Justice
Our "Call to Action"
Veteran Legal Justice aims to respond to the holistic legal needs of veterans and their families by increasing the capacity for affordable legal services. Rural regions of the state, which New Hampshire veterans heavily populate, are most impacted by economic disparities in need of civil legal assistance. Here in New Hampshire, access to affordable civil legal services is under-resourced (Report of New Hampshire Access to Justice, January 2021).
Many New Hampshire veterans, service members, and their families face a broad and unique set of legal challenges that can threaten their health, housing stability, financial security, freedoms, and economic opportunities. Without an active military base, New Hampshire veterans/service members face obstacles to navigating and accessing affordable legal services and legal help that holistically addresses veterans’ legal rights and protections.
Shane Cooper
President
Shane Cooper is a retired Navy Captain who served in the Navy for 26 years as a submarine officer and Navy judge advocate before retiring in 2021. He qualified as a submarine warfare and nuclear engineer officer aboard the USS Connecticut (SSN 22) where he served from 1996 to 2000. As a judge advocate, he served in a variety of roles including as a prosecutor, Special Assistant to the United States Attorney, Rule of Law Advisor in Iraq, and in-house chief counsel to several naval commanders including the Commander of United States Fifth Fleet in Bahrain. In his final active-duty assignment, he served as the Commanding Officer of Naval Justice School responsible for the Navy’s legal education and training program for all Coast Guard, Navy, and Marine Corps judge advocates and paralegals in addition to all Navy and Marine Corps commanders concerning the administration of military law. Currently, Shane is the Associate Dean for Administration and Enrollment at the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law and serves as a co-advisor to the school’s Veterans Law Society. He is also a member of the Town of Newbury Veteran’s Committee and Kearsarge Navy Birthday Committee.
Board of Directors
Law is nothing else but the best reason of wise men applied for ages to the transactions and business of mankind.
( Abraham Lincoln)
