I'm not sure what inspired this comment, as I have ever claimed to be perfect. Both Jason and I win a high percentage of our cases- however, neither of us has a perfect record. The reason that we both have a high success rate is very straightforward- as civilian counsel, we can work with clients from the outset to develop your case. Neither of us will take on a case in which we do not believe that there is a good chance of achieving the client’s goals. By comparison, military counsel on the formal hearing level have to take on everyone assigned to them, whether the case is viable or not. The key points re hiring civilian counsel are very simple- hire someone who knows the system well as early in the process as possible, as it is very hard to make a difference by jumping in at the last minute a few days before a formal hearing when you have missed several opportunities to influence a case on the MEB level prior to submission of the MEB package to the IPEB. There are some cases where that may be possible, but they are very few in number.