From my lawyer friend, heard lots of stories of struggling lawyers. Very common. Your pal's gonna have to take action, this isn't a problem that solves itself.
From such discussions, some quick ideas:
1) Prosecutor and public defender offices. The latter especially are low on the totem pole, but there's work. At least some.
2) Get advice from vet groups/offices/networks.
3) Have friend get on MMM forum and ask Nords.
4) The "real" money, other than to get high dollar work at law firms where he appears to have missed the bus,
is in specialized work. Triangulate with any special experience he has. Labor law related to military preferences? Labor law where clients are vets? Criminal cases of vets? Contact in-house attorneys at companies that have military contracts, seek any outsourcing work that they do? (Friend's old company used to hire outside counsel periodically, sometimes for simple work they didn't have time to do).
5) Family law is a common area for lawyers who don't have other work. Could he represents vets in their divorces?
6) Immigration law. Lots of business in that area. Traditionally steady work when you're established. Find firms that do it, ask for either shreds of business or an associate position or mentoring. Maybe specialize in immigration cases for vets who don't have citizenship yet? Or those cases of the translators from Iraq/Afghanistan who need asylum due to their heroic service?
7) Get listed through lawyer referral services.
8) Apply at all open attorney positions in governments he can commute to. Such jobs are rare and not high paying, but usually steady and have benefits. Many have vet preferences!
9) Re govt jobs, consider workforce commissions/agencies/boards or any govt agencies that hold hearings. Possibly they have law positions. Possibly they have hearing officer positions where the hearing officers act like lawyers but don't have to be; as an attorney, he might be competitive for these positions.
10) Find agencies that hire lawyers to do document review in big commercial cases. Boring low paid work, very common pay-the-bills option for lawyers needing work.