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Sydney Kotalik

Getting lost on her way to a high school debate team helped shape the direction of Sydney Kotalik’s life and career. She wound up at a practice session for the school’s mock trial team and joined it instead. 

The mock trial team awakened a passion for the law and advocacy and eventually led her to pursue a career as an attorney. Later in law school, Sydney volunteered with a veterans benefits legal clinic, sparking her interest in disability law.

Now, she helps disabled veterans secure the benefits and health care they deserve as part of the Deuterman Law Group’s Veterans Disability team. She works on behalf of veterans as they navigate the complex and ever-changing VA disability and healthcare system. Sydney is committed to protecting her clients’ legal rights, ensuring they receive the most favorable outcomes possible and keeping them informed about what’s going on with their cases. 

Sydney’s grandmother served in the Navy in World War II. So she is particularly interested in VA Disability cases involving female veterans and helping them deal with a system that wasn’t originally designed for them. 

Sydney earned her juris doctorate from William & Mary Law School. She earned her bachelor’s degree, cum laude, from Pennsylvania State University, double majoring in English and psychology.

Sydney is accredited by the VA to represent veterans and their families on appeals of their VA disability claims. She is admitted to practice in the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. She is a member of the National Organization of Veterans Advocates, a group whose membership includes attorneys and other advocates for disabled veterans.

Prior to joining Deuterman Law, Sydney was a law clerk and associate attorney at Goodman Allen Donnelly in Virginia, where she also worked on VA Disability cases. She also has experience in other areas of personal injury and disability law.

William & Mary Law School offers a practicum program where law students work with real clients under the supervision of licensed attorneys. Sydney was a student worker with both the Special Special Education Law PELE Clinic and the Lewis B. Puller, Jr., Veterans Benefits Clinic. She gained experience supporting students and families of children with disabilities, assisting with IEP eligibility, attending hearings with school administrators and conducting mediations. Through the veterans clinic, she helped clients with their VA Disability claims.

She also worked as a law clerk and legal intern with BrownGreer, PLC, a firm in Richmond, Va. that helps administer and disburse victim compensation funds for large-scale tragedies. 

As a student, she interned with Legal Aid Works, which provides free civil legal services to low-income residents of 16 Virginia counties and the City of Fredericksburg, Va. She gained experience in foreclosure and bankruptcy cases as a legal assistant at McCabe, Weisberg & Conway, LLC, in Pennsylvania.

In law school, Sydney was the Notes Editor of the William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal. She was a member of the Moot Court Team, serving in a leadership position. She was outreach chairperson for the Family and Education Law Society and a board member and auction chairperson for the law school’s Public Service Fund. 

As an undergraduate, she was part of the Paterno Fellows Program and the Schreyer Honors College and a member of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. She was a captain of the American Mock Trial Association team and was chairperson for the Penn State State Dance Marathon fundraiser for pediatric cancer. Sydney was also a part of Rine Na Leon–the Penn State Irish Dance team–to cap off thirteen years of competitive dancing.

Sydney volunteers with her church, and she’s on the leadership committee of a women’s group in Norfolk, Va.

She lives in Virginia Beach with her husband and their dog, Dany, an Australian shepherd and poodle mix.