After the JAG Corps: Navigating Your Career Progression

Happy New Year! Chad Jespersen retired from the United States Air Force in June 2021.  With the COVID 19 pandemic ramping up as he was preparing to transition out of the service, he was forced to find innovative ways to network, which he did, including extensive use of Zoom and other online tools to meet people who could help him with his goal to find his next career.  What was clear from our conversations, both this one and another that we had offline, Chad is a person who not only talks about the importance of networking, but practices it.  Familiar with the numerous programs such as Hiring Our Heroes, Candorful, Fourblock, and American Corporate Partners, Chad is a walking encyclopedia.  Now working for Unisys in HR and acquisitions, Chad is a great source for information and tips about making the transition from active duty to the civilian sector.  His LinkedIn profile is available at https://www.linkedin.com/in/chad-jespersen/ 

When I first launched this podcast and was soliciting volunteers, Paul Janoff was among the first to raise his hand and volunteer to come onto this show.  For one reason or another, however, we never got around to chatting until December 16, 2022.  I think it is the perfect show to closeout the year.  Paul offers a positive message of what awaits those of on active duty, which comes from serving in the Navy JAG Corps in the 1980s followed by stints in Philadelphia as a prosecutor, and then working with the Army and the Coast Guard before moving onto his current job as a bilingual HR advisor.   Paul's LinkedIn profile can be viewed at https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-janoff-b3534133/. A few programming notes. 1.  There are a few spots where there are slight distortions from degraded connectivity.  I do not think they impact the quality of the podcast, but simply wanted to make you aware. 2. You will note a moment of silent at around the 1245 mark.  No, this is not in remembrance of Barbara Walters who just passed away, but a ringing phone here in the podcast studios caused us to stop for a moment.   3.  Turning to last week's show, I provided the wrong email address for Veteran Legal, LLC.  I have corrected on the podcast description.  The correct e-mail address isadvice@veteranlegalrep.com. 4.  Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas.  Today, on the 365th day since releasing the trailer for this podcast, we talk to U.S. Army JAG veteran James "Jimmy" Trieschmann who tells about his career progression from active duty to a civilian military justice appeals practice before building a nationwide VA disability ratings appeals practice.  James also provides a primer on the VA disability claims process, a must for both people who will soon be leaving active duty as well as those who separated and never filed a claim as well as those who may be thinking about appealing their rating.  The URL for Veteran Legal, LLC, is https://www.veteranlegalrep.com, while the phone number is 202-996-1300 and the e-mail address is advice@veteranlegalrep.com.

In today's episode, Shane Cooper details his very quick and unexpected journey to becoming the Associate Dean for Administration and Enrollment at the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law.  Believing that it was unlikely his application would advance, let alone that he would get the job, Shane found himself a clear front runner and had yet to tell Navy JAG Corps leadership about the possibility of him leaving. Fortunately, leadership understood the significance of this opportunity and was able to assist him to go ashore in time to begin his new career.  This is an episode for JAGs thinking about law school administration.  Shane's LinkedIn profile can be found here.

Good morning! Start your GO NAVY! BEAT ARMY! Saturday off with another episode of After the JAG Corps!  Today, I talk to Alison Atkins, who served just over 20 years in the Army, both as an MP and then as a JAG.  Following her retirement in 2020, Alison first worked with Capital One before moving onto U.S. Bank where she serves as Assistant General Counsel and Vice President and Chief Cyber Counsel.  In this episode, Alison talks about how she was fortunate to link up with a Navy veteran as a hiring manager at a company that values potential over experience, enabling her to make the jump from a military practice to the financial world.  In our wide-ranging conversation, we talk resumes, compensation, the cultural differences of working in the civilian sector, and Alison even worked a reference to Joey Tribbiani from Friends into our conversation.  Alison's LinkedIn profile is available at https://www.linkedin.com/in/alison-atkins/.

In this episode, Kelli Hooke shows that applying for a job online can indeed result in employment.  While stationed at Fort Belvoir, Kelli talks about how she saw an ad for a position with T Mobile in Seattle, for which she was ultimately hired.  Kelli shares her thoughts on what it is like to work for a major tech company, and how working as a corporate counsel is a lot like being an SJA.  Note: you will hear voices in the background of this interview.  It is a testament to Kelli's ability to multitask.  As a working woman with a husband and children, Kelli graciously gave up her time to talk to me while she waited on one of her children at an evening commitment.  Kelli's LinkedIn profile can be accessed by clicking HERE.

Happy Thanksgiving!  Today, Scott Felder, a retired Army judge advocate and partner with Wiley Rein LLP in Great Falls, VA, talks about what may be the oldest digital judge advocate network, known as the Military Legal Professionals Network or MLPN.  Scott took over administration of the network this year and was gracious enough to talk to me about how what it is, how it came about, and how judge advocates can join.  Scott also talked about his own career progression as well as the efforts by him and his firm to help judge advocates leaving the service.  Scott's LinkedIn profile can be accessed HERE. Programming note:  Looking for additional guests. If interested, please e-mail me at afterthejagc@gmail.com.

In today's podcast, I talk to Jordan Walerstein, who leveraged his time as a member of the U.S. Army JAG Corps to working in the area of technology and security after a brief stint with the Department of Justice.  Jordan is a wealth of knowledge, and provides his perspectives on the value of continued military service in the Army Reserves, USAJobs, the challenges associated with immediately going into an in-house counsel office, Amazon's hiring process, what it was like to work there, and even the quality of coffee served there!  He has since moved on, but Jordan packed a lot into our 30 minutes.  Jordan's profile is available at https://www.linkedin.com/in/walerstein/.

In today's podcast, Faisal Akhter talks about his career progression from active duty as a member of the U.S. Army JAG Corps to working at Microsoft, where he now serves as a Senior Corporate Counsel.  Faisal shares how his lifetime interest in technology led him to target employment opportunities in the tech sector, the interview process, how the COVID pandemic changed everything, how his experience the Army prepared him to assume his current leadership role as a director, and his belief of the important role, if not duty, that veterans have in helping those who come behind them.  To that end, he encourages judge advocates to send those cold messages via LinkedIn to veterans at companies in which they are interested to learn about that organization's culture.  Faisal's LinkedIn profile can accessed by clicking HERE. This conversation was recorded on October 24, 2022.

Mark Fava is a 30-year Navy veteran and an accomplished aviation attorney, and although he credits everyone's favorite JAG and friend to all (Hank Molinengo) with being a critical enabler in his career success, never served as a JAG. Nonetheless, his background as a career Reserve naval aviator and attorney working in both law firms and at Boeing gives him a unique position to provide an outside perspective on the capabilities of JAGs to work in the corporate setting.  However, the real take away from our conversation is the value of engaging with military veterans in your job search.  As you will hear, Mark lists several examples in which having a military connection helped as he pursued different career opportunities.  In fact, this entire podcast itself speaks to the power of having such allies as Mark and I had never met before we sat down for our conversation a couple of weeks ago; we connected via LinkedIn.  And yet, he was kind enough to give me an hour of his time to help you and me with our career progression.   Mark's LinkedIn profile can be viewed at https://www.linkedin.com/in/markfava/.