A CIA contractor and former Navy SEAL, Glen Doherty was killed in the attack on Benghazi on Sept. 12, 2012. Though he had disability and insurance coverage, a law called the Defense Base Act specified his family couldn't receive any death benefits from the CIA as Glen did not have a spouse or dependents. The news received coverage that included the front cover of the Boston Herald, above.
After three years of pro bono work by K&L Gates lawyers and government advisers, the Doherty family will receive $400k in death benefits. The CIA has also announced a new program that provides payments to families of employees and contractors who are victims of terrorism regardless of dependent or marital status. It will retroactively date back to '83, to include families of those killed in the attack on the US embassy in Beirut, and others since.
K&L Gates representation on the matter was led by government affairs adviser Amy Carnevale and included DC partner Michael O’Neil, Orange County counsel Michael Mortenson and partner Caitlin Blanche.
"Our family has finally received the symbolic justice all families of such American heroes deserve," said Glen's mom, Barbara, in a statement. "While we continue to grieve the loss of Glen Doherty, we find comfort in the fact that the lives of many families will be changed with the retroactive implementation of this program, and hope this may bring some closure to those families. " Barbara is photographed above during a previous taping with Greta Van Susteren.
The Doherty family thanked CIA Director John Brennan, "who insisted on finding a way to make this benefit work," along with others who helped facilitate the new program: K&L Gates, Sen. Ed Markey, Rep. Stephen Lynch, Sen. Kelly Ayotte and Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
The family is releasing all legal claims it filed against the government now that the new program is in place, though it says it hopes that Congress will enact the Markey-Lynch legislation to amend the Defense Base Act, and that Congress will pass bipartisan legislation to award the four Americans killed in Benghazi with the Congressional Gold Medal.
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