The first time Bill Yanek served in the U.S. Army, he worked with artillery. Now he’ll be writing wills for soldiers.

Yanek, a Lawrence resident and lobbyist for the Kansas Association of Realtors, will report to Fort Riley next week for a year of active duty in the Army’s JAG Corps. He’ll stay in the United States, helping soldiers get their affairs in order before they go overseas on combat missions.

“The main issues deal with powers of attorney, or their wills,” Yanek said Thursday. “When a soldier is in an overseas theater, they’re going to have to have someone who can legally act on their behalf, so we take care of those problems.”

National legal experts say Yanek is one of hundreds — perhaps thousands — of civilian attorneys in the military reserves who have been called to active duty in the wake of 9-11. And they say those call-ups may be having a quiet ripple effect throughout the nation’s civilian legal system.

“It does in ways I don’t think we’re quite able to see in many cases,” said Glenn Fischer, assistant staff counsel for the American Bar Assn.’s Legal Assistance for Military Personnel committee. “If you’re a solo lawyer and you’re representing 100, 150 clients, your mobilization necessarily affects those clients.”

Out and back again

Yanek, a captain, graduated from West Point in 1992 and served six years as a field artillery officer and recruiter before coming to Lawrence in 1998 to attend law school.

As a reservist, he’s been part of the 8th Legal Support Organization, an outfit in Independence, Mo., that provides legal services to soldiers at bases across the Midwest.

“We have one attorney that is in Iraq, we believe, right now, and a few others that will probably be called to active duty,” Yanek said.

Bill Yanek, Lawrence resident and lobbyist, reports to Fort Riley next week for a year of active duty in the Army's JAG corps.

The unit was told a month ago that a lawyer from the team would be needed for a year at Fort Riley. Yanek volunteered.

His main task will be helping soldiers through the Soldier Readiness Process — writing wills, selling houses, making arrangements with civilian employers.

“When our units mobilize, they’re given a lot of information and assistance” including legal help, said Master Sgt. Kirk Hutchinson, a spokesman for the 89th Ready Reserve in Wichita, which oversees Yanek’s unit.

Yanek said such assistance was designed to help soldiers focus on their missions instead of worrying about nagging problems back home.

“It’s our job, in one way, to allay some of their fears legally, that we’re here for them,” Yanek said. “We want to minimize any distractions to that soldier while he or she is deployed.”

Numbers uncertain

Solid numbers for JAG reservists who have been called to active duty are hard to come by. Defense Department spokesmen in Washington, D.C., and St. Louis did not return phone calls Thursday.

6News video: Lawrence attorney called to JAG corps (10-21-04) Judge Advocate General’s Corps More in the War in Iraq: The Lawrence Perspective

Anecdotally, the call-ups are “fairly common” in the legal community, Fischer said.

“I can fairly confidently say we’re talking in the hundreds, if not thousands,” he said.

Fischer said the call-ups had the biggest effect on attorneys in solo practice. They must find new representation for their clients — not an easy task, given the confidential nature of much legal work — and hope they can rebuild their practice when they return from duty. Unlike reserve soldiers who work for big firms and small businesses, self-employed lawyers aren’t guaranteed their old levels of employment when their service is done.

“It can be fairly complicated,” Fischer said. “But it’s not something that we can pinpoint a definite impact, unless you hear a person’s particular story.”

Yanek’s employment with the Realtors association makes his situation less complicated. But he said it was sobering to help young soldiers make preparations for the possibility of their death.

“It can be a long day,” Yanek said. “If it’s even a small part of making their deployment easier, it’s certainly something we’re willing to do and glad to do.”