Helping Veterans Find Peace

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Confronting the trauma of sexual harassment and sexual assault during her military service was excruciating for U.S. Army veteran Rachel Faili. After applying for and being denied service-connected disability benefits four times, Faili did not know where to turn, but knew she needed help to tell her story. Working together with her Sidley pro bono team, Faili was finally awarded benefits from the VA in 2023.

Throughout the majority of her first enlistment in U.S. Army service, which began in 1976 when she enlisted at age 18, Faili was subjected to repeated and pervasive sexual harassment that led her to develop PTSD and even contemplate suicide. She left the military to raise a family as her way out of the harassment, but she still believed in the Army. Years later, she rejoined as an officer after earning her nursing degree, thinking things would be different. Unfortunately, the harassment continued. When she was offered a promotion to Captain, she turned it down, deciding to leave active-duty military life behind and move on.

But the trauma of her experiences haunted her. Faili struggled to hold jobs and maintain relationships, including with her family, and eventually became homeless. Following the intervention and encouragement of her sister, she decided to apply for VA benefits, but was met with denials until the nonprofit Houston Volunteer Lawyers connected her with Sidley in 2022. The Sidley team submitted Faili’s supplemental claim, including supporting evidence they had gathered in conversations with her and those around her about her painful past, and the VA issued its decision awarding Faili service-connected disability compensation in July 2023.

“I was believed to the point where the VA had to concede and say, ‘Yes, this did happen to her,’” Faili said. “It was because of the expertise [of my lawyers] … and the presentation of the brief that I was able to win my case. It wasn’t until there was a person and a face and a name to my case that I could tell my story to and have them record it and represent me, and do it so beautifully and so eloquently.”