Shawn Clark Graham

Shawn was recently selected by Super Lawyers as a 2016 Upstate New York Rising Star in the practice area of military and veteran’s law. With over a decade of civilian litigation experience and over two decades of service in the United States Army Reserves, primarily in the Judge Advocate General’s Corp.  Shawn is a formidable adversary of government prosecutors and a dependable ally of service members and veterans.

As a Senior Associate at Tully Rinckey PLLC, he  concentrates his practice on military law and veteran benefits, regularly representing such individuals in courts-martial, Article 15s, officer/enlisted separation, letters of reprimand, MEB/PEB disability proceedings, Military Equal Opportunity (MEO),  Disenrollment Boards,  Military/DFAS  Debt Disputes, Discharge Characterization Upgrades and other Board for Correction of Military Records proceedings. Shawn is an accredited attorney before the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and is admitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (CAVC). He represents and assists Veterans with benefit claims before the VA Regional Offices, BVA and CAVC.

Shawn also focuses on representing clients in all matters relating to the security clearance process and adjudication.  He currently holds a Secret clearance and currently being processed for an upgrade to Top Secret/SCI.  He is capable of representing government employees and contractors as well as military personnel through any stage of the security clearance process. As a security clearance representation attorney, Shawn’s capabilities include the following: (1) Representation before the Defense Office of Hearing and Appeals (DOHA), Department of Defense, FBI, CIA, DHS, and all federal government agencies, including document and witness preparation; (2) SF85, SF85p, SF-86, OF306 and DD Form 1879 pre-clearance counseling; (3) Investigative interview preparation; (4) Responses to Statement of Reasons (SORs), Letter of Revocation, and Denial of Suitability; and (5) Hearing requests.

In addition to working at Tully Rinckey PLLC, Shawn is a Sergeant First Class in the Army Reserves and currently serves as the non-commissioned officer in charge (NCOIC) and Chief Paralegal of the 353rd Civil Affairs Command at Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island. There he oversees paralegals from Wisconsin to Rhode Island at subordinate units and trains them as board recorders for separation boards and all other required paralegal duties. He oversees the processing of separation board actions and assists the command judge advocate in assigning and tracking Army Regulation 15-6 investigations.  Shawn has also been trained as an Army JAG Special Victims Counsel (SVC) in the representation of victims of sex-related crimes in the Army. The SVC Program strives to create a transparent and fair investigatory process while preserving the rights of both parties.

In his civilian capacity, Shawn practiced personal injury and insurance defense for a large New York City law firm for over eight years and has litigated everything from construction defects to workplace accidents to environmental/toxic torts to motor vehicle accidents. His clients included major insurance companies, AIG Insurance, Liberty Mutual Group, Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company and Travelers Insurance; government agencies, such as the New York State Department of Transportation; and property owners, general contractor, subcontractors, and other policyholders. Shawn had a caseload of 35 to 45 complex litigation actions, and he conducted and defended over 1,000 depositions for personal injury cases.

Shawn’s awards include the Army Commendation Medal, five Army Achievement Medals, the Navy Achievement Medal, the Afghanistan Campaign Medal, the NATO/ISAF Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal. He is a Veterans Clinic volunteer with the Onondaga Bar Association’s Volunteer Lawyers Project, the Syracuse University Law School Veterans Clinic and a SU IVMF Legal Advisor to their entrepreneurial veterans program.