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Key NVLSP Spokespersons

Barton F. Stichman
Joint Executive Director, National Veterans Legal Services Program

Helping veterans and their families receive the federal veterans benefits that they need and deserve has been the focus of Barton F. Stichman’s entire legal career.  He helped found NVLSP and has been its co-director or director for most of the organization’s existence.

Over the last thirty years, his efforts as lead counsel in federal court litigation have forced the VA to pay over $100 million dollars in retroactive disability and death benefits to thousands of veterans and their families. His work has compelled military departments to pay more than $3 million in back pay and upgrade the less than honorable discharges issued to over 7,000 veterans.

Stichman helped organize the Veterans Consortium Pro Bono Program, served as its initial director of Outreach and Education, and is the primary designer of the training curriculum used by this program since 1992.

He co-authored The Rights of Military Personnel and NVLSP’s Military Discharge Upgrade Manual and has written articles on veterans law appearing in the Administrative Law Review, the American University Law Review, the Federal Bar News and Journal, Clearinghouse Review, and the Legal Times. He served in 2004 as President of the Court of Appeals for the Veterans Claims Bar Association. He has served as chair and co-chair of the Section of Administrative Law & Regulatory Practice of the American Bar Association.

He earned law degrees from New York University School of Law (J.D. 1974) and Georgetown University Law Center (L.L.M. 1975).

Ronald Abrams
Joint Executive Director, National Veterans Legal Services Program

A member of the Pennsylvania Bar, Abrams began his career in 1975 in the Philadelphia regional office of the Veterans Administration, serving first as an adjudicator and then as a member of the rating board. He transferred to the VA’s Central Office in 1977 as legal consultant to the Compensation and Pension (C&P) Service, where he was recognized as an expert in due process.

As a legal consultant to the C&P, Abrams helped to draft the VA Adjudication Procedures Manual M21-1. He wrote and interpreted regulations and directives to be followed by VA staff and others. He drafted and commented on legislation on behalf of the VA. As part of his work for the C&P, Abrams was in charge of the C&P quality review section. He also conducted national training sessions in adjudication and due process for VA staff.

Since joining NVLSP in 1989, Abrams has conducted more than 200 training sessions for many organizations, including the American Legion, the National Association of State Directors of Veterans Affairs, National Association of County Veterans Service Officers, the Vietnam Veterans of America, the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, AMVETS, the Military Order of the Purple Heart, and many state and county department of veterans affairs. He has also conducted training for sessions for many state bar associations, Legal Services Corporation-funded offices, the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, the National Association of Elder Law Attorneys, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Abrams is the author of NVLSP’s Basic Training Course in Veterans Benefits. He serves as a member of the governing board of the Veterans Consortium Pro Bono Program. He also designed the training curriculum for the Pro Bono Program.

He is a graduate of Temple University and Temple University School of Law.