The University of Georgia School of Law is getting a new legal clinic to help veterans who've filed claims for disability benefits with the gridlocked U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, thanks to gifts from plaintiffs lawyer James Butler Jr. and four other Columbus lawyers.

The clinic is scheduled to start taking clients next summer, after fielding applications for a clinic director in the fall and giving that person time to get things set up.

Butler, of Butler Wooten & Peak, said he made the lead gift in memory of his father, Lt. Cmdr. James Butler Sr., who flew fighter planes in the U.S. Navy in World War II and died last year. “Dad always taught us that anything worth doing was worth doing right,” Butler said.