Showing Veterans Some LOVE

When Tyler Baylis ’22 arrived at Berkeley Law he wanted to work with military veterans, who can struggle making the transition to civilian life. With no student organization to join, Baylis promptly founded one — Legal Obstacles Veterans Encounter (LOVE) — with fellow veterans Matt Sardo ’23 and Blaine Manire ’23.

“The rigors of law school can make this transition even more difficult,” says Baylis, a former U.S. Navy Surface Warfare Officer for five years who deployed twice. He founded LOVE to provide aid to the Bay Area veterans community and to give Berkeley Law veterans “an opportunity to participate in a project that feels familiar.”

One of the Pro Bono Program’s 41 Student-Initiated Legal Services Projects, LOVE is supervised by lecturers Olivia Cole (a California deputy attorney general) and Rose Carmen Goldberg (deputy legal director at the nonprofit Swords to Plowshares). They also co-teach the school’s Veterans Law Seminar and Practicum.

“Veterans law is a burgeoning area with a lot of need but not a lot of advocates relative to other social justice practice areas,” Cole says. “In Berkeley, the rest of the East Bay, and other cities across the country, veterans experiencing homelessness, mental health conditions, and criminal justice involvement often have nowhere to turn for the specialized and culturally competent assistance they need.”

LOVE’s students are helping Swords to Plowshares develop a guide to assist elderly veterans in navigating their benefits. Over time, the group’s founders hope to expand into client-facing projects that allow students to interact more directly with veterans.

“We received overwhelming interest from veteran and non-veteran applicants,” says Sardo, who has spent 14 years in the U.S. Army (including as part of the elite Green Berets) and teaches UC Berkeley ROTC cadets in small unit tactics and ethics. “We’re humbled by the talented team we’ve built in a short period of time.”

The founding trio’s combined military service is long enough that Manire jokes they must be the most non-traditional student-led organization on campus. But it also gives them a big advantage.

“Our shared military service emphasizes our ability to lead, develop, and achieve,” Manire says. “These qualities instantly come out when we’re all working together, which makes the process that much easier.”

LOVE is part of what Golberg and Cole call a renaissance for veterans law offerings at Berkeley Law, along with the practicum and two other student-led initiatives, the Survivor Advocacy Project and the Disability Rights Project.

“They deserve a huge shoutout for taking the initiative to create this from scratch during such a tumultuous moment,” Goldberg says of LOVE’s co-leaders. “Despite the challenges of navigating law school during a pandemic, they made time to lead and help others. This is the height of service, and we’re honored and humbled to be a part of it.”

— Gwyneth K. Shaw