Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge today applauded the opening of the final Arkansas Department of Veteran Affairs and Arkansas Department of Workforce Services Veteran Service Office in Hope.
The Attorney General’s office contributed the full start-up cost of $170,000 through lawsuit settlement dollars to assist the State Department of Veteran Affairs with opening Veteran Service Offices in Fayetteville, Forrest City, Fort Smith, Jonesboro, North Little Rock, Monticello, Mountain Home, Russellville and now Hope.
“Our veterans can now get the help they need close to home,” said Attorney General Rutledge. “It was a priority of mine that these offices become a reality to ensure our brave men and women who have given so much in service to our country get access to services they need.”
Assisting the Department of Veteran Affairs with the opening of these offices is part of Rutledge’s Military and Veterans Initiative which she created to assist active duty military, reservists, veterans and their families with consumer-related issues, veterans courts and other collaborative efforts.
About Attorney General Leslie Rutledge
Leslie Carol Rutledge is the 56th Attorney General of Arkansas. She is the first woman and first Republican in Arkansas history to be elected to the office. Since taking office, she has begun a Mobile Office program, a Military and Veterans Initiative, a Metal Theft Prevention program and a Cooperative Disability Investigations program. She has led efforts to teach internet safety, combat domestic violence and make the office the top law firm for Arkansans. Rutledge also serves as Vice Chairwoman of the Republican Attorneys General Association and re-established and co-chairs the National Association of Attorneys General Committee on Agriculture.
A native of Batesville, she is a graduate of the University of Arkansas and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law. Rutledge clerked for the Arkansas Court of Appeals, was Deputy Counsel for Gov. Mike Huckabee, served as a Deputy Prosecuting Attorney in Lonoke County and subsequently was an Attorney at the Department of Human Services before serving as Counsel at the Republican National Committee. Rutledge and her husband, Boyce, have a home in Pulaski County and a farm in Crittenden County.
