I’m sure you’ve explored every nook and cranny of the MSJDN website, right? If not, take a few minutes to check out some of the great resources, including the jobs board, member discounts, past webinars, a document library, and much more!

One of those “much more” things is our library of coverage of MSJDN in the media: www.msjdn.org/press/.  Here you will find stories about MSJDN from a variety of outlets, many of which were written by MSJDN members to share our mission and support our efforts on licensing and hiring initiatives.

Now we need your help to add to the library. We want to blanket bar association journals, alumni magazines, blogs, and other outlets with the story of the military spouse attorney as we get ready to celebrate MSJDN’s 5th anniversary in June. So check out the tips below and then take a few minutes to write your story!

Share your military spouse attorney story

By Tamar Yellin

We want YOU to tell your story as a military spouse in the legal profession!

Interested? What now?

• Telling your story helps raise awareness of licensing and employment barriers for military spouse attorneys. People might not relate to statistics, but hearing your story can help with MSJDN efforts to reduce those barriers.
• Feel free to write about difficulties you have had due to being a military spouse and an attorney. But please keep the tone professional (we don’t want pity – we want parity!) and share how the community can help you and others in your situation.

Who’s my audience?

• Local, state or national bar journal
• Practice area or firm newsletter
• Alumni magazine (undergraduate, graduate or law school)
• Legal, military or other blogs
• Wherever else you can get the message out!

What should I write about?

• Tell your law story – were you already practicing (or in law school) when you met your spouse or did you decide to become a lawyer after becoming a military spouse or significant other?
• Tell your love story (if you want) – do you have a funny story about how you met or dated?
• Tell your military story – have you moved to different jurisdictions? OCONUS? Has your spouse been deployed or done a remote tour? Have you geobached?
• Tell how being a military spouse has affected your legal career – has it made it more difficult? Have you had to take multiple bar exams or be admitted without examination to multiple jurisdictions? Have you tailored your practice to be portable? Have you found employers to be accommodating? Did you have to forge your own way by going into practice on your own?
• The great things about military life – the friendships, the understanding, the sacrifice.
• The hard things about military life – moving, leaving friends, starting over, getting relicensed.
• What you like about the place you’re in now —write to your audience! Are you in a military friendly location? Do you work in a practice area that’s conducive to moving around (immigration law, tax law, patent law, other federal practice areas)? Remind them that many spouses now are professionals with careers.
• Tell them about MSJDN and what we do!
• We’re a professional group of military spouse attorneys.
• We’re a great networking source.
• We are advocating for licensing accommodations.
• Tell people how they can help!
  • They can help with our advocacy efforts to change licensing rules. Share the contact information for our State Licensing team at statelicensing@msjdn.org.
  • They can hire military spouse attorneys at their firm/company. Direct them to our hiring program Homefront to Hired: homefronttohired@msjdn.org.
  • They can hire a military spouse attorney for their own legal issues! Find a military spouse attorney through the MSJDN public directory.

Where are my MSJDN resources?

Need ideas? Check out our press page and see what others have written in the past: www.msjdn.org/press/

Need statistics? Check out the report compiled from the MSJDN Annual Survey: www.msjdn.org/members. We’ve got the numbers on milspouse attorney bar exams, PCSing, living remotely, and much more.

Need to brainstorm with someone? Email Communications Director Libby Jamison at communications@msjdn.org.

Please send a copy of your article to communications@msjdn.org before submitting so that we can help fact check. We can also help you reach out and place your article if you have written something but aren’t sure what outlet to approach for publication. Thank you for sharing your story!