Amy F. Odom is a litigation staff attorney with NVLSP. She represents veterans and survivors before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, the Board of Veterans' Appeals, and VA Regional Offices. She is a graduate of the University of Florida Levin College of Law (J.D., cum laude, 2006), where she competed on the school's moot court team and served as a Public Interest Fellow with the Center for Government Responsibility. Ms. Odom also earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Florida.

Ms. Odom came to NVLSP after expressing an interest in veterans' affairs during a clerkship in the Department of Labor Office of Administrative Law Judges, and an ALJ put her in touch with contacts in the field. Ms. Odom's interest in veterans' issues stems from the difficulties our service members encountered in Iraq during her law school years of 2003-2006. "I wanted to do my part to help ensure that my generation was taken care of when they came home."

Ms. Odom describes a unique case of how, on behalf of NVLSP, she helped an appellant receive much deserved benefits. A veteran was exposed to Agent Orange while aboard a ship off the coast of Vietnam. However, since he never physically stepped onto the Vietnamese mainland, he was not automatically presumed to be exposed to the chemical. The Department of Veterans Affairs should have confirmed with the Navy if the ship had traveled through the small inland waterways, which would have resulted in a presumption that he was exposed to Agent Orange; however, the agency never followed through. Ms. Odom filed an appeal to the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, arguing that the VA legally erred by failing to confirm whether the ship entered Vietnam's inland waterways. Through the ship's reunion website, Amy was able to track down the ship's captain during that time, who stated that the boat did indeed go through inland waterways and prepared a written statement to that effect. After securing a remand of the claim from the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, Ms. Odom provided the appellant with the captain's written statement, and the Board of Veterans' Appeals granted the claim with thousands of dollars in retroactive pay. Also, the VA added the ship to the "Agent Orange Ship List" which is a list of U.S. Navy and Coast Guard ships operating in Vietnam that were likely exposed to Agent Orange. This status automatically grants veterans who served on these ships with the presumption of being exposed to the pesticide, which makes it much easier for them or their survivors to win additional benefits from the VA.

In addition to representing individual veterans before the CAVC, BVA, and VA regional offices, Ms. Odom also mentors and advises pro bono attorneys through NVLSP's Lawyers Serving Warriors� program, and attorneys representing appellants through the Veterans Consortium Pro Bono Program. She finds the program rewarding, especially when pro bono attorneys are successful in securing benefits for undercompensated veterans. Some recent victories include volunteer attorney Brian J Larivee at WilmerHale achieving a reversal on a PTSD case, granting the appellant $42,000 in retroactive benefits, and volunteer attorney Joelle Laszlo at Reed Smith succeeding in getting a 100% disability rating awarded to a combat veteran who served in Iraq.

Amy notes that while NVLSP's recent success stories are encouraging, there are still challenges ahead. The backlog of cases at the Department of Veterans Affairs results in many deserving vets waiting months or more for the payments they deserve. Also, she worries that the wars winding down in Iraq and Afghanistan may create a reduction in the visibility of veterans' issues and a public loss of urgency to help. Amy predicts compensation for undiagnosed illnesses linked to service in Southwest Asia and traumatic brain injury will be important issues in the veteran community in the next few years.

Ms. Odom is recently married and resides in Fairfax, Virginia with her husband David, who is a veteran of the United States Navy.