By JODI SOKOLOWSKI
Buffalo Law Journal

Many say Buffalo has a small-town feel. This small world became even smaller when a care package connected area paralegals to a Buffalo native serving in the U.S. Navy in Baghdad.

As part of a national initiative, members of the Western New York Paralegal Association (WNYPA) sent a care package to Peggy Milashouskas, a U.S. Air Force sergeant from Maine.

They were surprised, but very pleased, to learn that Milashouskas is a paralegal who works with Lt. Cmdr. Christopher Viney, a lawyer from Buffalo.

‘In a pretty good position to do this'

Viney, deputy general counsel at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, is the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps' officer in charge at the embassy, overseeing an office of four lawyers, seven paralegals and seven linguists. He runs the Combined Detainee Review and Release Board, which determines whether detainees could pose a threat to coalition forces or the Iraqi Army.

"We try to capture the guy trying to hurt their neighbors or anyone looking to impose instability," Viney said in a phone interview from Baghdad. "We get to debating whether this particular individual poses a threat. Sometimes the Iraqis shed light on a case and have U.S. forces look at it differently, and likewise, (we) convince Iraqis that this person is or isn't a threat."

"It's building a lot of goodwill," he adds.

After graduating from Albany Law School in 1997, Viney joined the Navy JAG Corps and worked with attorneys from the Army and Air Force while stationed at the Pentagon. He ended his first term of service shortly before Sept. 11, 2001, and recalled walking into work at Phillips Lytle LLP around the time the terrorist attacks occurred.

"I remember watching, thinking, ‘I was just there,' " he said.

Viney said his childhood dream was to both be a lawyer and serve in the military. He said the experience, including representing a sailor who pleaded guilty - the evidence against him was "overwhelming," Viney says - in Viney's first court-marshal experience convinced him not to go into trial work.

"I saw it as a great opportunity to get trial experience, because JAG makes all these promises of getting trial experience right out of the gate," he said.

His late father, a onetime first lieutenant in the Marines who'd voluntarily joined during the Vietnam conflict, was pleased to see both Viney and his brother join the Navy.

"He was very proud (of us), and likewise we were very proud of him as well," Viney said.

Viney, who is legally separated from his wife, said he volunteered to serve because he's "in a pretty good position to do this." A lot of his JAG colleagues, he says, have families or are solo practitioners, so military service "would have interfered in their lives quite a bit."

"It's not everyday that someone has an opportunity to play a role in this historical movement," he said. When he returns to Buffalo, Viney said, "The biggest thing I'll bring back is not substantive law but more of the life experience of it."

Viney is scheduled to leave Baghdad June 10, and plans to return to Roswell Park shortly thereafter.

"We're very much looking to having Chris back," said Michael Sexton, Roswell Park's general counsel and chief operations officer. "For me, I'm complaining about how I'm going to get all his work done, but we're worried if he'll be all right."

Sexton describes Viney as "unique, bright, personable and fun to be around," and also "a bit of a workhorse."

Known too for his practical jokes, he once convinced Phillips Lytle Partner Robert Greene that his car was being stolen from a parking garage.

"He eventually told me (it was a joke) as I was six feet off the ground and running out the door," said Greene. "I was frequently the brunt of those jokes. I can't wait until April 1, because he's a great April Fool's practitioner."

Viney has been recording his experiences on a Web site, which he tries to update regularly, at http://web.mac.com/crviney.

In Baghdad, he says, "The Chicken Dance" is played in the north wing of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad every night at 9, and staff regularly throw Nerf balls and stuffed animals over walls from one office to the next.

"It's a pretty good way to relieve stress and anxiety at the end of the day," he said.

But being a jokester isn't the only thing that Viney is good at, Greene said.

"He was a very careful lawyer, technically," he said. "He always did his homework. He's very good at research and analysis, with a strong practical approach to very complicated matters."

"I wouldn't do anything without running it past him, because he always had good insight," said another Phillips Lytle partner, William Brennan, who continues to work with Viney on Roswell Park matters. A former Marine, Brennan said the two rib each other frequently, calling each other "Squid" and "Jarhead."

His colleagues commend Viney for his military service and hope he comes home safely. As recently as last week, insurgents were bombing U.S. targets in Baghdad, including the U.S. Embassy, where Viney and Milashouskas are stationed.

"I certainly respect him for doing it," Greene said. "Obviously we are all concerned about him, and want to get him home as quickly as we can."

"He's over there because he felt it was his duty," noted Sexton. "He said it was just something that he felt he had to do."

It's in the mail

Although he doesn't know it yet, WNYPA has added Viney to its list and will be sending him a care package every other month starting in April.

Through its Navy Legalmen Project, which began in April 2007, the association has been sending packages to three servicemen and women serving in legal roles in Iraq and Afghanistan; Viney will be the fourth. The care packages include toiletries, gum and candy, nonperishable food and reading material.

Project committee members Michelle Coxford, a paralegal at Phillips Lytle, and Annette Worthington, a Bond Schoeneck & King PLLC legal assistant, knew Viney when he worked as an associate at Phillips Lytle, where Worthington also worked.

"It's cool, and it just makes you feel good," Worthington said. "It's important to know all three people we support made it home safely."

WNYPA welcomes contributions toward its Legalmen care-package project. Donations can be mailed to or dropped off at Bond Schoeneck & King, Key Center, 40 Fountain Plaza, Suite 600, Buffalo, care of Worthington.