July 6, 2020

Greenfield Reporter Business Briefs: Veteran awarded fellowship to expand medical- legal partnership

BY Business Briefs: July 3, 2020Greenfield Reporter

Veteran awarded fellowship to expand medical-legal partnership

Community Legal Aid, a nonprofit that provides free legal services to low-income and elderly residents in Western and Central Massachusetts, announced that Amanda Cooper has been awarded a Massachusetts Bar Foundation summer fellowship to serve as an advocate in Community Legal Aid’s Veterans Medical-Legal Partnership.

According to a Community Legal Aid press release, medical-legal partnerships are collaborations that put legal advocates into health care settings to address legal issues that can affect patients’ health.

During her fellowship term, Cooper will work to expand the project, splitting her time between Community Legal Aid’s Northampton office and doing outreach to veterans at sites in Greenfield, Leeds and Springfield. According to the release, some of her responsibilities will include helping veterans to upgrade their discharge status, secure accommodations for disabilities and maintain stable housing.

Cooper, an Army combat veteran who served on active duty for eight years and in the Massachusetts National Guard for the following three years, graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a bachelor’s degree in legal studies and is currently a law student at Western New England University’s School of Law.

“My military service has been the defining work of my life,” Cooper said in the release. “I feel I am in a unique position to be able to understand my fellow veterans’ specialized legal needs and assist them in navigating the complex judicial and administrative frameworks necessary to vindicate their rights.”