HPU’s Pro Bono Veterans Law Clinic Officially Opens
The law clinic will host its inaugural Veterans Advice and Referral Day on Nov. 1.
HIGH POINT, N.C., Oct. 29, 2025 – High Point University’s pro bono veterans law clinic is now open, giving the inaugural class of the Kenneth F. Kahn School of Law an opportunity to help local military veterans as Veterans Day approaches.
HPU’s new law school started the Bergmann & Moore Veterans Law Clinic this fall to help injured veterans receive disability compensation benefits from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) while also teaching students the complex issues that pertain to veterans law. The law clinic aligns with HPU’s commitment to being a God, family and country school and working on behalf of veterans.
A group of seven second-year law students is staffing the law clinic this semester under the supervision of Ashley Castillo, the clinic’s director and supervising attorney. As part of a class offered to second-year law students, Castillo teaches the students twice a week on the nuances of veterans laws while also serving as the law school’s assistant dean of students.
The students then apply what they learn in the classroom to represent veterans who have a wide range of physical and psychiatric issues, ranging from hearing loss and back injuries to post-traumatic stress disorder. The law clinic is currently representing eight veterans, six who reside in the Piedmont Triad region, to help them receive compensation from the VA.
“To be able to actually make the arguments for veterans and to be able to be their voices is very rewarding,” Castillo said. “That’s what I tell the students all the time. What we’re doing is we’re bridging the gap because the law is very complicated, and even filling out claims forms is very complicated. We’re bridging that gap for them because the veterans may have all these things going on with them, but they don’t realize that it’s tied to a disability that happened during service. That’s what we’re here doing, bridging that gap.”
Veterans Advice and Referral Day
As a way to thank veterans for their service, the law clinic will host its inaugural Veterans Advice and Referral Day from 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Nov. 1, at its office at 1634 N. Main Street in High Point. It is free and open to all veterans in the community.
During this event, veterans will get a consultation with a second-year law student who is assisting with the law clinic. Veterans will receive advice and referrals related to their VA disability compensation benefit inquiries.
Please note: While the clinic is not accepting new cases during the event, veterans will receive free legal advice and guidance on the next steps they could take.
Bridging the Gap
HPU President Nido Qubein announced that the university was establishing a pro bono veterans law clinic at HPU’s 13th Annual Veterans Day Celebration in 2023.
HPU received a generous gift from Bergmann & Moore, LLC, one of the nation’s largest law firms practicing solely in the area of veterans’ benefits, to establish the law clinic. The clinic is named in honor of the law firm based in Rockville, Maryland.
Castillo developed a passion for serving veterans while working as an attorney for the VA, where she litigated more than 1,700 appeals for veterans to receive their disability benefits. She also presided over nearly 100 appeals as an acting veterans law judge.
“I am so proud of Dean Castillo and the work she is doing to serve veterans in our community,” said Mark Martin, the law school’s founding dean and former chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court.
Alex Baldwin, a second-year law student from Burlington, North Carolina, said he wanted to get involved in HPU’s veterans law clinic after watching his best friend struggle to get assistance from the VA. His friend is a U.S. Army veteran who sustained serious injuries during an explosion while deployed overseas.
“Seeing that made me think there are thousands of others like him that need this help,” Baldwin said. “If I can help someone like him, that’d be great just so this doesn’t happen again. And as it turns out, my friend needed further help from what he was applying for, and he decided to come to the clinic, too. So now we’re actually helping him at this clinic, so I’m able to help him directly.”
When students sit down with veterans to discuss their disability compensation benefits, the first thing they do is thank the veterans for their service.
Gianna Trapletti, a second-year law student from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is the granddaughter of a veteran. Growing up, she remembers attending parties that were held when her next-door neighbor who served in the military would return home from a deployment.
Trapletti said she became more interested in attending HPU’s law school after learning that it was opening a pro bono veterans law clinic staffed by students. She hadn’t heard of other law schools doing something similar.
“One of the biggest things that we talk about is disability compensation for our veterans is open to all veterans that suffer any sort of injury or disability related to their service,” Trapletti said. “But a lot of them don’t take that opportunity because they always say, ‘Well, I’ve seen a lot worse. I’ve seen other veterans that are in worse shape than I am.’ But they all deserve those benefits. Being able to kind of give them that voice and that understanding of you did something really incredible for everybody in our country, so we owe something, even if it’s just a little bit, back to you. We owe that to you, and you’re more than welcome to take it. It is definitely a sense of pride of being able to help them do that.”