Jennifer Brooker, Esq.
Venable LLP
TVC National Volunteer Corp

Our December VIP has been a great asset to our Case Evaluation and Litigation team since she signed up to volunteer last April. As an Army veteran who served for 11 years, Jennifer Brooker has a strong personal connection to our mission. She enlisted in the Army in 2003 and served as a paralegal before she earned her commission as an Intelligence Officer. After her service in the Army, she worked for the Department of Justice (DOJ) as a paralegal. While at DOJ, Jennifer attended Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law (CUA Law) and as a 3L, she participated in a semester-long course at the Veterans Advocacy and Estate Planning Clinic. At the clinic, she assisted with TVC cases for veterans on appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (CAVC) working on fact investigation, legal research and drafting briefs.

Jennifer graduated early last spring just as the pandemic changed everything. While she was looking for a position in a law firm, she knew she wanted to do something meaningful with her time. Because of her previous experience at the CUA Law clinic, she decided to reach out to TVC to see if she could be of assistance. She was met with a resounding yes! With her valuable experience at the CUA clinic, as well as her military background, we were very fortunate to have her help us with writing screening memorandums. As part of the support TVC provides volunteers, all cases are prescreened for merit in advance of assignment and a memo describing the facts and legal issues is created. This is a very important part of the success of our program and our ability to recruit the quality volunteers that we have taking our cases.

“As a disabled Veteran myself, I understand how vitally important the mission of TVC is. It was a privilege to be able to assist fellow Veterans in their time of need. The staff at TVC is instrumental in ensuring that Veterans receive the benefits they rightfully deserve. I learned so much, not only about benefit claims and the appeals process, but also improved my legal research and writing skills at the same time. I look forward to working with TVC in the future and cannot wait for the day that I can assist a Veteran with their claim in front of the CAVC.” Jennifer Brooker, Venable LLP.

We are delighted to learn that Jennifer has been hired as an associate at Venable LLP. The Venable Pro Bono Program has been supporting The Veterans Consortium since 2002, by providing volunteer attorneys to assist with legal counsel, free of charge, to veterans and their families, caregivers and survivors. In 2017, TVC was awarded a Venable Foundation grant to help convert our Discharge Upgrade Program course materials to an online learning resource. We look forward to Jennifer becoming a Venable volunteer with our program in the future and wish her the best in her new position.

“We are so grateful that Jenn graciously volunteered to help us with our caseload during a time of great uncertainty. She screened a dozen cases and produced a superior work product. We were happy to give her another opportunity to strengthen her legal writing skills and give back to the military community on her way to the next chapter in her career.”
Caitlin Ens, TVC Staff Attorney