In many respects, Caity Lynch ’25 makes it look easy.
As an engineer officer in the U.S. Army Reserve, she was promoted to captain one year early. Selected for company command, she led 153 soldiers to construct vital infrastructure valued at $18 million across four locations in Afghanistan.
Her work enabled an increase of over 1,200 NATO forces in the country, for which she earned a Bronze Star. Of the 18 captains in her brigade of 2,000-plus soldiers, Lynch was rated the top captain and best commander.
As a student at UC Berkeley Law, she led the pro bono project Legal Obstacles Veterans Encounter (LOVE), co-authored a major report on veteran deportation, and won a Women Veterans Trailblazer Award from the California Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). She was a law clerk at Bay Area Legal Aid, advocating for survivors of intimate partner violence, and for Equal Rights Advocates, where she won a Ramey Gender Justice for NextGen Leaders Award.
But Lynch points to facing her vulnerability as a crime victim who later suffered Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in the military, not her triumphs, that led to her latest achievement — receiving the prestigious Skadden Fellowship, which annually funds 25 to 30 exceptional young attorneys for two years of public interest work.
After graduating, she will work in San Francisco at Swords to Plowshares to expand VA housing, health care, and disability compensation for veterans with less than honorable discharges — often at risk of or experiencing homelessness — by applying new regulations that recognize trauma and discrimination as a cause of unjust dismissal from service and subsequent VA ineligibility.
Below, Lynch describes her difficult journey, the sense of community she found in the Army and at UC Berkeley Law, and her devotion to fellow veterans.
I first encountered the law in high school, as the victim in a criminal case. The justice system left me feeling used and discarded, while my community blamed and rejected me. In need of a new start, my life last seemed to make sense when I was in a military youth program. So, I earned an Army ROTC scholarship to the University of Montana.
Through my undergraduate experience and the nine years that followed as an Army Reserve officer, the Army is where I learned to feel strong again. Training honed my physical abilities, leadership under stress, and job-specific engineer officer skills, but it’s the people I served alongside who truly shaped me.
People of all races, genders, and backgrounds serve: transgender soldiers, parents, immigrant servicemembers, others starting over, military sexual trauma survivors, adventure-seekers, people escaping poverty, a whole lot of good men and women. As an LGBTQ+ soldier, I came out in the military.
In 2016, I and other military women finally gained equal access to formerly male-only career opportunities. I grew up in the military, leading and taking care of soldiers.
Under the best circumstances, construction projects are grueling, dirty work, of which my engineers and I were extremely proud. In Afghanistan, it was nothing short of harrowing.
There is so much about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that I still don’t understand, but two things were clear when I came home: (1) The deployment was a success and (2) I had nothing left to give, not to the Army, my soldiers, or to myself. But who was I without the Army?
I came to law school looking for an answer and the student-led pro bono project Legal Obstacles Veterans Encounter (LOVE) was the natural place for me to start. Supervised by attorneys at Swords to Plowshares, law students in LOVE help veterans who are at risk of or experiencing homelessness gain access to Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) benefits, like healthcare and disability compensation.
Having received military and VA care myself, the work was personal. Later, while interviewing veterans as a summer intern at Swords to Plowshares, it even seemed arbitrary which one of us worked alongside the attorney and which veteran needed help from one.
As a survivor in law school, I found answers. From Criminal Procedure and Evidence classes to survivor advocacy in Family Law and understanding power through Constitutional Law, combined with care from compassionate therapists, I forgave myself. I finally, truly understood that what happened wasn’t my fault.
Externing at Equal Rights Advocates (ERA), I supported other student survivors. ERA supported me when I testified in favor of Colorado’s Child Sexual Abuse Accountability Amendment. It failed by one party-line vote. Sitting there, listening as attorneys debated my rights, it was still a privilege to have the legal education to understand what they said.
Although that fight continues, I already reclaimed my dignity. I wanted to pay it forward and I also missed helping soldiers. Long before I believed I could, Veterans Law Practicum Director Rose Carmen Goldberg and Swords to Plowshares Deputy Legal Director Olivia Cole Stanwyck encouraged me to pursue a Skadden Fellowship, the start of their own veterans’ advocacy careers.
Through their continued mentorship and the generous advice of other Skadden Fellows, my calling became a project proposal. It’s true that “Skadden funds dream jobs,” and after graduation, I’ll begin mine as a Skadden Fellow at Swords to Plowshares. There, I’ll help veterans discharged because of trauma or discrimination access VA care.
One thing I know: When people get the care they need to heal, we succeed, and we can even become Skadden Fellows.