Joe brought the case to coworker Cheryl Kirkwood, who also is passionate about giving back to veterans. Her dad is a veteran who receives support from Veterans Affairs. Together, they filed a petition for expungement. And fellow 3M attorney Matt Stump stepped in when Joe was out of town and couldn’t make the scheduled court appearance.

What seemed like an open-and-shut case got a little more complicated. Matt, Cheryl and even the veteran were surprised when, at the time of the hearing, they learned an eleventh-hour objection had been filed by the City Attorney’s office. Matt, a military veteran himself who was a litigator in private practice prior to joining 3M, had done some previous expungement work and was able to argue the case in court. Matt explained to the judge that the objection contained multiple deficiencies, and that their client’s case was completely in alignment with the new Minnesota expungement eligibility rules. A few weeks later, the judge granted the petition and the client was able to move forward with a clean record.

And where’s the veteran now? Off the streets and employed full-time as a technician for a telecommunications company. As Joe says, “For 25 hours, that’s a pretty good return on investment.”