As the Military Spouse JD Network continues to advocate across the country for reduced licensing barriers and increased employment opportunities, we are often asked to provide details about military spouses in the legal profession. Although we can extrapolate some data about military families from the Department of Defense statistics and other sources, this information is often not tailored enough to serve the needs of our organization. So in order to best represent MSJDN and military spouse attorneys, we began an annual survey of military spouses to gather information on licensing, employment, PCSing, and other important issues for this unique population. This year’s Annual Survey marks the fourth round of collection of this critical information, providing increased opportunities to compare data and trends over the years.

ALL military spouse law students and attorneys are invited to participate – whether dating, engaged, or married; active duty, guard, reserve, or veteran; employed or unemployed – whatever your situation is, we want to hear from all those we represent as we work to remove the licensing and employment barriers faced by our community. The survey takes approximately 5 minutes and collects data on licensing and re-licensing issues, student loan debt, family separations, career interruptions, and much more. Answers are anonymous and MSJDN membership is not required to share your experiences. The survey closes on December 31st.

Interested in seeing how the results are used? Check out the reports from previous years here. Our state licensing team relies on this information as they interact with the local legal communities in each state during discussions and implementation of military spouse attorney licensing accommodations. Our grants team utilizes the information when applying for funds for MSJDN programs like Making the Right Moves and Justice for Military Families (read about our recent award from Newman’s Own!). Our Homefront to Hired team shares the information with employers and organizations interested in hiring military spouse attorneys. These are just some of the ways this important information is utilized to better serve our community.

The Annual Survey is a critical piece of our Network’s successes. Please take a minute to complete the survey and share with any military spouse law students or attorneys in your network!