On June 15, 2023, Williams & Connolly secured a victory for an Army Veteran before the en banc Federal Circuit in a veteran’s pro bono case. Our client is a Vietnam veteran who suffered physical and mental disabilities as a result of his participation in the secret chemical and biological weapons testing program at the U.S. Army Laboratories in Edgewood, Maryland. After two tours in Vietnam and being honorably discharged, he was unable to access veterans’ disability benefits because of the government’s secrecy oath about the testing program. The Federal Circuit held that the government had improperly prevented our client from seeking benefits and ordered that the government consider him for an additional 35 years of benefits dating back to his discharge in 1971.
The Williams & Connolly team representing our client included associates Shayon Ghosh, Anna Hrom, and Tim Pellegrino, paralegal Sarah Coats, partner Liam Montgomery and former partner Luke McCloud, joined by our client’s lawyer before the VA, Mark Jones of Sandpoint, Idaho.