During this period high caliber civilian representation and counseling by a cohort of young attorneys were provided free of charge country-wide, in often challenging and controversial cases for hundreds of service members, including scores of trial and post-trial proceedings.
In early 1970, from previous experiences at Clark Air Base in the Philippines where she observed the need for independent legal counsel for U.S. overseas military personnel, donor Anne Peretz set in motion the creation of LMDC.
The aim of the office focused on representing military clients whose cases raised issues of dissent (e.g., conscientious objection and protests against the war), racism, constitutional rights, and command influence.
[6] Peter Hagerty, a navy veteran from the Harvard ROTC program, traveled to Vietnam in late summer of 1970, promoting by word of mouth the availability of LMDC legal services to GIs.
Later staff members in West Germany were attorneys Mark Schreiber (1974), William Schaap (1974–75), and Christopher Coates (1974–76), along with summer interns Gale Glazer and Louis Font (1973 and 1974), and, legal assistant Ellen Ray (1974–75).
Attorney David Addlestone provided stateside support in the form of federal court litigation and fundraising throughout operation of LMDC's West German office.
Court-martial defense and counseling services concentrated on matters of conscientious objection (e.g., Phu Cat 3 – airmen who refused to carry weapons on guard duty and were not as required informed of conscientious objector discharge application procedures), fragging prosecutions, access by confinees at Long Binh stockade (aka "LBJ" – "Long Bình Jail") to reading materials and visitors (e.g., Reverend Hosea Williams during his 1971 Vietnam tour).
[10] LMDC, with assistance of D.C. attorney David Rein, successfully resisted attempt to give other than honorable discharge to army 2LT for display of a Moratorium Day black armband.
(From May to August 1972, De Nike worked for LMDC in the Philippines, counseling and defending U.S. naval personnel at Subic Bay, and U.S. airmen at Clark Air Force Base.)
1974])), a class action challenging as unconstitutional measures invoked by the army in the name of drug suppression, including mass searches of enlisted personnel, denial of freedom of expression and movement, and confiscation of personal property without due process.
As a result of a petition to the U.S. Court of Military Appeals argued by LMDC attorney David Addlestone, the convening authority, Captain Peter Cullins, was disqualified as an interested party, since he was in command of the vessel and intervened personally at the time of the fighting.