Jennifer Wagman, ESQ

Jen has practiced Veterans Law since 2002, but her military roots go back much further. The daughter of a lawyer, a retired Air Force JAG, Jen was born on Edwards Air Force Base, California. Her family settled in Northern Virginia after her dad’s active military service, and that’s where Jen grew up. She attended college at Miami University, in Oxford, Ohio, where during her two-year tenure as Editor-in-Chief for the college newspaper, her interest in the law was kindled when she pressed a successful First-Amendment lawsuit against the University for open access to crime statistics contained in campus records the University administration claimed were protected by Federal student privacy laws. As a result, thousands of prospective Ohio college students and families are afforded easy and transparent access to accurate information regarding campus crime statistics.

During the pendency of The Miami Student lawsuit, Jen started law school in Washington, D.C. at Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law, where she met her husband, Matt. They both graduated in 2001. Jen began practicing Veterans Law while working for her first law firm, the Washington satellite office of a Wall Street firm that encouraged its attorneys engage in pro bono legal work following the 9/11 attacks. She volunteered for the Veterans’ Pro Bono Consortium representing veterans before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. Several years later, she decided to shift career paths to Veterans Law full-time and went to work for the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) at the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) where she spent almost 4 years. 

She worked for seven years at PVA representing veterans before the Board, winning awards in the millions of dollars for them.  She later managed PVA’s National Appeals Office in its DC headquarters where she worked on behalf of PVA in conjunction with Board leadership to improve the quality of appeals management issues, the reduction of the veterans’ appeals decision backlog, and overall improved agency to veteran and veteran service-organization communication. Additionally, Jen regularly conducted organization-wide training for NSOs nationwide on a variety of topics, including veterans’ benefits, appeals, and other specialized topics of law.

Jen and Matt have four children, two girls and identical twin boys, and a “fun-sized” Old-English Pocket Beagle named “Louie.” They live near Annapolis, Maryland—halfway between DC and Baltimore where Matt works, and the family has very divided loyalties when it comes to area sports teams. During her free time, Jen enjoys spending time with her husband and four children. Watching sports, NHL hockey (Let’s Go Caps!) in particular, is the long-standing favorite family past-time, despite the deeply divided household among DC, Baltimore and NY teams in any given professional sport. It’s every man, woman and child for themselves in the Wagman house come Play-Offs!

Jen is also the Executive Director and Founder of “The Scott Dayton Legacy Memorial Scholarship,” formed in 2022, honoring fallen high school classmate SCPO Scott C. Dayton (EOD), the first American service-member KIA in Northern Syria on Thanksgiving Day 2016. The annual high school scholarship will be awarded to two graduating seniors, one choosing trade school or enlistment in the military and another attending college or university.