On May 24, 2012, the Senate confirmed two new judges for the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. The Court has three vacancies and the addition of two new judges to fill two of those vacancies will be a welcome development.

The two new judges are Margaret Bartley and Coral Wong Pietsch.

Judge Bartley was previously senior staff attorney at the National Veterans Legal Services Program (NVLSP) and also Director of Outreach and Education for the
Veterans Consortium Pro Bono Program, where she served since 2005. She also served as Editor of The Veterans Advocate® where she had previously worked as Assistant Editor and contributing writer. She represented veterans and their dependents and survivors before the CAVC and the Board of Veterans’ Appeals from 1995. Following law school, she served as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Jonathan R.Steinberg, formerly of the CAVC. She holds a B.A. from Pennsylvania State University and a J.D. from American University Washington College of Law.

Judge Pietsch retired from the Army in 2007 as a brigadier general after having served inthe Judge Advocate General Corps since 1974. Since her retirement, she has been living in Hawaii, where she has worked as a civilian attorney for the Army. She has also served on the Hawaii Civil Rights Commission. She was the first woman general in the 228-year history of the Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps and the first Asian-American woman to hold the rank of brigadier general in the Army, promoted to brigadier general while a member of the U.S. Army Reserve. She holds a B.A. from the College of St. Teresa, an M.A. from Marquette University, and a J.D. from the Catholic University of America.