EPIC honors public service heroes

A refugee who fled Afghanistan in August 2021 with only the belongings she could carry; a widow who fought the Veterans Administration for a decade; and a 2L student who became a distinguished Navy JAG officer — what’s the common thread? All benefited from the work of three lawyers with long careers in public service.

Alpa Amin, Drew Early, and Charles Shanor were honored on February 7, 2023, by the Emory Public Interest Committee (EPIC) at the 26th Annual Inspiration Awards Ceremony. Amin received the Unsung Devotion to Those Most in Need Award, Early was recognized for Outstanding Leadership in the Public Interest, and Shanor was honored for his Lifetime Commitment to Public Service.

“There’s a huge issue with access to legal services and connecting legal knowledge and skill and help with those who need it most,” Dean Mary Anne Bobinski told the audience. “EPIC, the Center for Public Service, and the people in this room here tonight are the matches and the flame—the light that helps makes sure that we do make that connection between what law schools are about and those who are in need.”

Alpa Amin

Unsung Devotion to Those Most in Need Award

In her introduction, Alston & Bird Director of Pro Bono and Community Engagement Cheryl Naja said Amin joined the Georgia Asylum and Immigration Network (GAIN) in 2008 as a law and policy intern, when the organization was only three years old. Two years later, Amin spearheaded the Victims of Violence program, which expanded GAIN’s support of asylum seekers to include immigrant victims of human trafficking, domestic violence, and sexual assault. In 2018, she was named director of legal services and three years later, executive director.

That year, GAIN launched Project Ally, pro se asylum clinics for Afghans in Georgia. The child of immigrants, Amin honored her parents when accepting her award. “They gave up the comfort of their surroundings, their family, their traditions—even the sound of their native tongue,” Amin said. “In many ways they gave up their own identities as well: their careers, their accomplishments. They made the difficult choice to come to the United States so that I could dream out loud.”

She said she sees similar leaps in faith every day. People who came to the United States with nothing but a backpack full of hopes and dreams for their future generations,” she said. “It has been an honor to be a part of their stories.”

Drew Early

Outstanding Leadership in the Public Interest

The awards ceremony also celebrated the Emory Volunteer Clinic for Veterans’ (VCV) 10th anniversary. Early was the clinic’s co-director for eight years, and now serves as a pro bono advisor. “There’s probably no one in Georgia who knows more about Veterans Administration benefits, the VA’s policies and practices, and the reality of how the system functions than Drew,” said Assistant Dean of Public Service Rita Sheffey.

Early’s military career started at West Point. He was a US Army officer who saw multiple deployments abroad, including in Haiti and the Middle East. He retired as a lieutenant colonel, then attended law school, graduating cum laude. He now teaches CLEs on veterans law across the country. “He fights for those who fought for us by enhancing their quality of life,” Sheffey said. “He saw a need for quality representation for those who could not afford it.”

The VA is the nation’s second-largest cabinet agency, Early said. The clinic helps veterans and their families “navigate the morass.” The VCV was the first such law school clinic in Georgia and scored some big wins right away. That continued during Early’s tenure. He recalled a Florida widow whose husband died of brain cancer. She believed his illness was due to toxic exposure while he served his country at war. She was referred to Emory after she contacted the University of Florida, Early said.

“She fought the VA for 10 years,” Early said. “But next time at bat, she won.” The settlement provided free medical care, a tax-free stipend, and an accrued benefit. “That’s a life-changer,” he said. “I would encourage all students here to engage in this very worthwhile work.”

Charles Shanor

Lifetime Commitment to Public Service

Shanor taught at Emory Law for more than 40 years before retiring to the North Carolina mountains in 2017. He was introduced by his former student, J. Martin Bunt 14L, who co-founded the VCV in 2013. Bunt called Shanor an unassuming mentor who builds both people and institutions.

“It was Professor Shanor who planted the inspirational seed in myself and Rachel Erdman 14L when we were 2Ls that we should build a clinic for veterans,” Bunt said. He is now a lieutenant com.mander and Navy JAG admiralty attorney serving in Washington, DC.

Shanor told the audience about the clinic’s genesis. The Georgia Bar sent out a call to state law schools, prodding them to create a veterans clinic. All declined, Shanor said, and Emory didn’t have the resources for a traditional clinic with paid instructors and earned credit hours. So they pivoted to the idea of a volunteer, student-run effort.

Shanor and founding co-director H. Lane Dennard Jr. used their reputation and reach in the Atlanta community to raise funds and enlist attorneys to work pro bono to supervise students. Shanor helped Bunt and Erdman work with the school’s administration to make the clinic a reality. In its first four years, the clinic recovered more than $5 million in benefits wrongly denied to veteran clients.

But Shanor already had an exceptional academic and professional career long before the VCV, Bunt said. He also founded Emory Law’s International Humanitarian Law Clinic. And in 1987, Shanor was granted leave of absence to accept a three-year presidential appoint.ment to serve as general counsel of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

“That job took him all the way to oral arguments at the Supreme Court and case law that affects employment rights to this day,” Bunt said.

While the clinic’s obvious focus was on justice for veterans, Shanor also saw it as an ideal training ground for students to learn the ways of monolithic agencies.

“My main focus was on students, and Lane‘s was on veterans,” Shanor said. In pitching the idea to the law school, “we presented the clinic in a way that students could develop their administrative law skills. Later on, they could use those skills with any other agency besides the VA.—.the SEC, IRS, EEOC, or any of the alphabet agencies.” The clinic also reinforced the importance of pro bono work post-graduation.

“When your talents and experiences can help fill a need, grow your.self into it and find others with skills who share the mission,” Shanor said. “A generation of Emory Law students have thrown themselves into this enterprise. Ten years and many millions of dollars in benefits to deserving veterans later, I’m deeply gratified that the VCV is alive and well. Please step up in whatever ways you can—as volunteers, or as donors, or as both. Help preserve and develop this worthwhile enterprise.”