Alumni Spotlight: Jeremiah Underhill ’00

Jeremiah Underhill with his 2015 Pennsylvania Bar Association Pro Bono Award
Jeremiah Underhill with his 2015 Pennsylvania Bar Association Pro Bono Award

Jeremiah Underhill, a 2000 Penn State graduate, has dedicated his career to fighting for veterans’ rights. Underhill has served in several positions overseeing veterans’ issues. In 2015, he was named the Dauphin County Bar Association’s (DCBA) “Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year” and received the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s (PBA) Pro Bono Award. In addition to his pro bono work, Underhill works in the aerospace, defense and marine business unit of the largest electronic component manufacturer in the world, is the solicitor for his local township, and sits on the executive committee of the Veterans Advisory Board for a local law school. Underhill resides in Juniata County with his wife and two young sons.

My post-secondary education started at Penn State Altoona and ended with a law degree. I was the first person in my family to go to college, so the fact that Penn State Altoona had a warm, open, and caring environment is something I will never forget. The faculty and staff made students feel wanted and respected. I came away from Penn State with a bachelor of science degree in agricultural science and ended up being an attorney. Who could have scripted that career path?

I passed the Pennsylvania and New Jersey bar exams in 2006 and set out on my own as a solo practitioner. I was fortunate enough to be selected as the director of a Veterans Law Clinic in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 2007 and loved every bit of that role for the three years I was there. Alas, the economic downturn resulted in a funding collapse causing the clinic to close. I then began a new quest to start up another pro bono program for disabled veterans. In late 2013, the Dauphin County Bar Association agreed to house the Disabled Veterans Lawyer Referral Service. Since its inception, I have been the director and mentor for this program. I’m proud to say that this program is doing some great veterans work and just as importantly, it is educating scores of attorneys on the legal needs of our veterans.

Jeremiah and his wife, Annette, at Widener Law Commonwealth’s military symposium, "The Military, the Law, and the Constitution"
Jeremiah and his wife, Annette, at Widener Law Commonwealth’s military symposium, “The Military, the Law, and the Constitution”

Pro bono and public interest work has been a passion for me during my entire legal career. I believe it is of vital importance to any civilized democratic society that all citizens have access to adequate legal representation. The need for free or low-cost legal services is greater today more than ever and at the same time the availability of these services has diminished. The budgets of non-profit legal service groups have been slashed since the Great Recession. These organizations are critical to ensuring that low-to middle-income citizens have access to legal services.

Equal access to justice is just as important as housing, employment or healthcare, so I will continue to be a champion for initiatives that help to reduce the justice gap and hope other attorneys I meet along the way decide to do the same.