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As we honor those who have served this Veterans Day, Nov. 11, Colorado Law looks to its student veterans as a source of pride and inspiration.

Earlier this month, Colorado Law hosted the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces (USCAAF) as part of the court’s Project Outreach Program, where the court holds arguments at a handful of law schools, military bases, and other public facilities around the nation.

The application process was competitive and took about two years to finalize. Colorado Law was selected from a pool of 14 other law schools.

“It was an incredible honor to host the USCAAF,” said Karthik Venkatraj ('17), who worked with then-Dean Phil Weiser to submit Colorado Law’s application to the USCAAF. “Colorado Law has a long and distinguished history of producing JAGs for our nation’s military as well as being a law school with a large amount of dedicated and active veterans. Hosting USCAAF was a culmination of years of effort.”

Venkatraj is president of the Student Bar Association, former president of the Military Law Society (MLS) at Colorado Law, and a veteran who served as a captain in the Colorado Army National Guard. He was recently recognized as one of the .

During the court’s visit to Colorado Law, USCAAF Chief Judge Charles Erdmann said he didn’t always know he would wind up in the Marine Corps, but he wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father, who served in World War I. He then pursued his lifelong interest in law. Following law school at the University of Montana, he became an assistant attorney general before entering private practice.

“You have no idea where you’re going to be using your legal skills or what you’ll be doing, so even in classes that don’t interest you, you should pay attention,” he said. “Many of the skills that I picked up in law school have turned out to be extremely helpful. Nobody knows what’s going to happen, even if you have your life mapped out. I thought I did: graduate, then work for the attorney general, then run a private practice for the rest of my career. That part of my legal career now is the minority.”

The MLS hopes to build on its success by establishing a fellowship that would financially support law students working with veterans in need of legal help in the Boulder/Denver metro area.

“We have too many homeless veterans. We have too many poor veterans. We have too many veterans who are doing okay financially, but get in trouble with the law. We have veterans who cannot navigate the VA. These folks served their country, and need help. We owe it to help them,” said Adam Gittleman ('18), co-president of the MLS and captain of the U.S. Army. “This is not to say every veteran needs help, or has legal trouble. But the fact remains that for those who are in these categories, they need help. We want Colorado Law to proudly offer that help to our veterans. With the support of the administration and the community, we can make that a reality.”

The Military Law Society at Colorado Law is a valuable resource for student veterans to connect with one another, find service opportunities in the local veteran community, discover mentoring opportunities with local attorney veterans, and learn more about JAG opportunities. For more information about the MLS, please visit or contact Adam Gittleman at adam.gittleman@colorado.edu.

PICTURED: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces with Colorado Law students Patrick Kummerer ('17), far left, and Adam Zenger ('18), far right, who participated in the oral arguments as amicus curiae.