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Ms. Alexis Marie Ivory is a senior staff attorney with NVLSP. She splits her time between developing training programs and conducting training sessions for veterans service officers and representing veterans and their survivors before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. She is admitted to practice before the U.S Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims and is a member of the Maryland State bar.

Prior to joining NVLSP, Ms. Ivory was counsel at The Board of Veterans’ Appeals, Department of Veterans Affairs. During her tenure, Ms. Ivory was the VA representative at military bases in Japan and taught the VA portion of the Transition Assistance Program.

Ms. Ivory is from New York and is a graduate of The Catholic University of America (B.S. 2002), and The Columbus School of Law, Catholic University of America (J.D. 2005).

Mr. Richard V. Spataro is the Director of Training and Publications for NVLSP. Mr. Spataro joined NVLSP as a law clerk in 2004 and accepted a position as a staff attorney upon his graduation from law school in 2005. He was promoted to the position of senior staff attorney in 2013. He has represented hundreds of veterans before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims and has also represented veterans before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the Board of Veterans’ Appeals, and VA Regional Offices. He trains advocates in veterans law and mentors attorneys who participate in NVLSP’s Lawyers Serving Warriors^®Program and the Veterans Consortium Pro Bono Program. From November 2010 to August 2015, he was also the managing attorney of NVLSP’s Nehmer Lawsuit Division. During that time, he and his team of attorneys assisted thousands of veterans and their survivors obtain retroactive VA benefits for herbicide-related disabilities under the court orders in the class action Nehmer v. U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs.

Before embarking on his legal career, Mr. Spataro served as a Surface Warfare Officer in the United States Navy. He earned his commission through the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps program at Duke University. He spent four years on active duty, serving first as the Auxiliaries Officer of the USS Vella Gulf and then as the Navigator of the USS Mount Whitney.

Mr. Spataro is a member of the Virginia and the District of Columbia Bars. From 2010 to 2013, he served as a Vice Chair of the Veterans Affairs Committee of the Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice of the American Bar Association.

Mr. Spataro originally hails from Malone, New York. He is a graduate of Duke University (B.A., History, 1998) and American University, Washington College of Law (J.D., cum laude, 2005).

Margaret (Peggy) Costello is a staff attorney at NVLSP. She represents veterans before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals and U.S. Court of Veterans Claims and provides training to veterans advocates.

Ms. Costello has extensive experience in veterans law. Prior to joining NVLSP, Ms. Costello worked as Associate Professor and Director the Veterans Law Clinic at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law for 15 years. During her tenure at Detroit Mercy Law, Ms. Costello oversaw the development of the Veterans Law Clinic. Ms. Costello’s work has garnered her many accolades, including the Michigan State Bar Champion of Justice Award.

Ms. Costello is a member of the State Bar of Michigan. She is admitted to practice before several federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, the Sixth and Seventh U.S. Circuit of Courts of Appeals, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. She is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University (B.S. with high distinction and Honors in Psychology, Phi Beta Kappa), Southern Illinois University (M.A. Rehabilitation Administration), University of Michigan (M.A., Clinical Psychology), and Detroit College of Law (J.D. Summa Cum Laude). She is a Ph.D candidate in Education and Psychology at the University of Michigan.

Mr. Louis J. George is Special Counsel to NVLSP, and focuses on matters at the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (CAVC) and Training. He began his previous tenure at NVLSP in 1998, serving as a Staff Attorney and Senior Staff Attorney before being named Director of Training and Publications, a position he held from 2013 to 2015.

While a member of NVLSP’s litigation staff, he represented veterans and dependents before the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Board of Veterans’ Appeals, the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and other federal courts. He also trained and mentored attorneys participating in NVLSP’s Lawyers Serving Warriors^® Program. He was also a co-author and co-editor of The Veterans Benefits Manual.

Most recently, Mr. George served as an Attorney for the Office of the General Counsel at the Social Security Administration in Boston, MA. His exceptional work garnered him numerous accolades including Exemplary Contribution or Service Award, Excellence-in-Service Award and Recognition of Contribution Performance Awards.

Mr. George has a long history of public service and defending veterans rights. From 1996 to 1998 he worked as an associate counsel with the Board of Veterans’ Appeals, where he wrote decisions regarding entitlement to veterans benefits for review by members of the Board. From 1992 to 1996, he served as a staff attorney with the Massachusetts Highway Department, Central Artery/Tunnel Project, in Boston. During law school, he worked as a law clerk with the Board for Correction of Military Records of the Coast Guard, where he researched and wrote decisions regarding requests for discharge upgrades and other claims involving such issues as promotions, separations, and disability retirements.

Mr. George is admitted to the Supreme Judicial Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (1992) and the District of Columbia Court of Appeals (1994). He is also admitted to practice before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and several other federal courts. He is accredited by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Mr. George was President of the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims Bar Association. He was a member of the Rules Advisory Committee of the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. From 2012 to 2015 he served on the Section Council of the Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice of the American Bar Association, having previously served as Co-Chair of the Veterans Affairs Committee of the Section. He later served as Assistant Budget Officer and Budget Officer of the Section.

A native of Danvers, Massachusetts, Mr. George is a graduate of Salem State University (B.S., summa cum laude, 1989) and Georgetown University Law Center (J.D.,1992). He and his wife, Ellen Dempsey, live in Danvers, where he is active in local and community affairs.

Ms. Burbank is Director of Litigation at NVLSP. In this role, Ms. Burbank supervises all individual lawsuits brought by NVLSP in U.S. district courts, Article III courts of appeals, and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, as well as all of NVLSP’s class actions and other strategic litigation.

Before joining NVLSP, Ms. Burbank co-taught Yale Law School’s Veterans Legal Services clinic as a Robert M. Cover Clinical Teaching Fellow. During her tenure at Yale, Ms. Burbank supervised advocacy on behalf of veterans and veterans’ organizations at all levels of administrative and judicial review as well as class actions and impact litigation. Prior to that, Ms. Burbank worked for nearly eight years as a litigator at the U.S. Department of Justice, where she worked on complex commercial litigation at both the trial and appellate levels. Ms. Burbank’s work earned her several accolades including a Civil Division Special Commendation Award.

Ms. Burbank is a graduate of the University of Chicago (A. B., with honors) and Harvard Law School (J.D., cum laude), and clerked for the Honorable David B. Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. She has written scholarly work on a variety of topics, including veterans law, disability rights, voting rights, and illegal exactions. She is an active member in good standing of the Connecticut and North Carolina State Bars, and a VA-accredited attorney. She is admitted to practice before several federal courts, including the Federal Circuit, Court of Federal Claims and the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.

Barton F. Stichman is Special Counsel to NVLSP focusing on litigation activities. In July 2021, he stepped down as Executive Director of NVLSP, which he co-founded in 1981. After earning law degrees from New York University School of Law (J.D. 1974) and Georgetown University Law Center (LLM 1975), he has devoted his entire professional legal career to helping veterans and their families get the federal veterans benefits to which they are entitled.

For the last four decades, Mr. Stichman has represented veterans and their families before U.S. District Courts, U.S. Courts of Appeals, the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, the Department of Veterans Affairs, military department discharge review boards and boards for correction of military records. His litigation efforts have resulted in payment of more than $5.4 billion dollars in disability and healthcare benefits to hundreds of thousands of disabled veterans and their families.

A major part of NVLSP’s mission is to increase the pool of effective advocates available to represent veterans and their family members by training lawyers and non-lawyers and providing educational publications to them in veterans benefits law. Over his career, Mr. Stichman has trained thousands of non-lawyer accredited veterans service officers, lawyers, and law students in this area of law.

Mr. Stichman is a co-author/editor of The Veterans Benefits Manual, NVLSP’s 2,400-page treatise on veterans benefits law that is published annually by Lexis Law Publishing and has been distributed to thousands of veterans service officers and lawyers. The Veterans Benefits Manual has been recognized as legal authority in numerous court cases. He is also a co-author of The Rights of Military Personnel, and NVLSP’s Military Discharge Upgrade Manual and has written articles on veterans benefits law appearing in the Administrative Law Review, The American University Law Review, The Federal Bar News and Journal, Clearinghouse Review, Stanford Law and Policy Review, and the Legal Times.

Mr. Stichman is a member of the Judicial Advisory Committee of the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, and is a past president of the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims Bar Association.

Ms. Rochelle Bobroff is the Director of Lawyers Serving Warriors^®, the Pro Bono Program of NVLSP, supervising the attorneys in NVLSP’s Lawyers Serving Warriors^® program.

Previously, Ms. Bobroff was Director of the Federal Rights Project at the National Senior Citizens Law Center and Director of the Access to Courts Program at the Constitutional Accountability Center. She also worked as the Senior Attorney for Systemic Reform at AARP Legal Counsel for the Elderly and as a Senior Attorney at AARP Foundation Litigation. She served as a Commissioner on the D.C.Access to Justice Commission.

Ms. Bobroff has managed systemic reform pro bono projects and litigation regarding Veterans, housing, consumer, public benefits, and long-term care issues. She has written numerous United States Supreme Court and federal Court of Appeals amicus briefs. She also published several law review articles regarding court access for safety net and civil rights statutes. She has led workshops at national training conferences addressing pro bono innovations and court access.

Ms. Bobroff is a graduate of Yale Law School and obtained her undergraduate degree in Economics at the University of Chicago.

Ms. Deutsch is an Appellate Attorney at NVLSP. She spent eight years at the Board of Veterans Appeals as an Attorney-Advisor. During that time, Ms. Deutsch prepared more than 1,100 Board decisions, signed more than 45 decisions as an acting Veterans Law Judge, and served in the Board’s Office of Quality Review. She also served as Executive Editor, Managing Editor, and Associate Editor of the Veterans Law Review over a six-year period. More recently, she served as Assistant General Counsel at the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. Ms. Deutsch is a graduate of the College of William and Mary (B.A., summa cum laude) and the Georgetown University Law Center (J.D.) where she received numerous writing awards. She is admitted to practice in Maryland and Washington, D.C.

Amy Fulmer is a staff attorney with NVLSP’s Pro Bono Program Lawyers Serving Warriors. She mentors and advises attorneys assisting veterans with claims for discharge upgrades, medical retirement, and combat-related special compensation claims. She also mentors and advises volunteer attorneys representing veterans before the Discharge Review Boards and the Board for Correction of Military Records.

While in law school, Ms. Fulmer acted as a student attorney in her law school’s Veterans and Servicemember Clinic where she assisted veteran’s applying for disability benefits and discharge upgrades. While in the clinic she also was a member of a team who wrote an amicus brief to the United States Supreme Court in support of a veteran’s rights issue (George v. McDonough). Ms. Fulmer is a graduate of Broward College (B.A., summa cum laude, 2019) and University of Florida, Levin College of Law (J.D., cum laude, 2023). Ms. Fulmer is also a veteran of the Army where she served for four years as a watercraft operator.

Abigail Reynolds is a staff attorney with NVLSP’s Pro Bono Program Lawyers Serving Warriors^®. She mentors and advises volunteer attorneys representing veterans before the Discharge Review Boards and the Boards for Correction of Military Records. She also mentors and advises volunteer attorneys assisting veterans with claims for VA benefits before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (BVA) following remands from the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (CAVC).

While in law school, Ms. Reynolds interned at Homeless Persons Representation Project, working on veterans’ benefits and discharge upgrade cases, and Legal Aid Society for the District of Columbia, working on public benefits cases. She also served as Senior Forum Editor for the American University Law Review and Director of Academic Affairs of the Student Bar Association. Ms. Reynolds is a graduate of Winthrop University (B.A., magna cum laude, 2015) and American University Washington College of Law (J.D., cum laude, 2020). She is a member of the District of Columbia bar.

Ron is Special Counsel to NVLSP, where he served as Joint Executive Director from 2004 to 2017 and Director of Training and Publications from 1989 to 2004. He is a graduate of the Temple University (B.A. 1969), and Temple University School of Law (J.D. 1973).

Prior to his time at NVLSP, he worked for the Veterans Administration as an adjudicator, a rating board member, and finally as a legal consultant to the Compensation and Pension Service.

Since joining NVLSP, he has conducted hundreds of training sessions for various national, state, and county service organizations.

Ron is also a co-author and editor of the Veterans Benefits Manual, NVLSP’s 2100-page treatise on veterans law published by LexisNexis.