Introductmn to the Third Legal Assistance Symposium

• Author: by Brigadier General Thomas R Cuthbert
• Pages: 01

As this Third Legal .4ssistance Symposium goes to print. \ve find ourselves celebrating the overwhelming success of Operation Desert Storm. Dedication of this issue of the Military Law Remew to legal a~siscance IS indeed apprapliate, considering che sigzificant role legal assistance played in the largest peacetime deployment of United States military might m the history of our nation. Army leaders and soldiers throughout the world relied on us to meet the legal challenges created by the mobilization and deployment of our soldiers. Lawyers labored to prepare wills and powers of attorneys, answer numerous questions on domestic relations matters, help soldiers receive the protection offered by the Soldien' and Sailon' Civil Kelief Act (SSCRA), and provide a myriad of other legal S ~ ~ Y I C B S .

This effort continues unabated during the redeployment and demobilizing phase of Desert Storm Because legal assistance plays such a signifi cant role in the overall delivery of legal services to OUT commands, our soldiem, and military famil) memben. a review of I\ here we have been what we are doing, and what we plan on accomplishing 1s apprapnate.

Mere we haw been: Over the course of the last thirty years or so. we hate seen a tremendous growth in the varlet> of legal services pro\ ided by attorneys of the Judge Advocate General's Corps (J.4GCj. \Ye are practicing in man) nea and exciting areas of the law that have evalied in our lifetime. including emironmental laa. procurement fraud. and contract appeals. \'e have seen the creation of a separate judiciarg and a separate Trial Defense Service. This same expanaon has occurred in the fields that traditionail) haw been the 'bread and butter" of mihtarg laxyers-m~l~tary

JUS~ICC, International la\%. and administrative law What we often fad to note. how-ever, LS the expansion and development of legal assistance within the United States Army. Although legal assistance originally began as an extra duty for attorneys to help soldiers confronted b> legal em tanglements in the C ~ I I I I I I arena, It became a full-time duty during the Vietnam war. As legal offices erpanded to fulfill their milltar) justice obligations brought about by the war legal assisranre beramp a separate section of the staff judge advocate (SJAj offre. More and more officers were tasked with legal assistance duties. and IT wab not long before the designation of defense mii is el legal dssistaiir?

\!ILITARY LAW REYIEW [VOI 132

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