 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 
|
|
 |
||||||||||||||||
|
Bar News - June 4, 2004 Bar Foundation Awards $1.3 Million in IOLTA Grants THE NEW HAMPSHIRE Bar Foundation has awarded more than $1.3 million in Interest on Lawyers Trust Account (IOLTA) grants to organizations providing or facilitating access to the civil justice system for low-income people, and for educational programs operated by the NH Bar’s Law-Related Education program. The Foundation awarded a total of $1,355,977 in IOLTA grants this year to various justice programs. The IOLTA grants program continues to provide the majority of funding for New Hampshire civil legal aid organizations, enabling thousands to obtain access to justice. The IOLTA program, which provides funding for charitable purposes from the interest earned by pooling small or very short-term deposits in lawyers’ trust accounts, did not dip in the past year. Despite overall low interest rates in the economy New Hampshire’s IOLTA Leadership Banks maintained interest rates of 2% or better accounting for 87% of the revenue for the IOLTA program. Bar Foundation officials cited the cooperation of those leadership banks, which continued to offer preferential interest rates for IOLTA deposits (see the IOLTA bank honor roll in the next issue of Bar News) and suggested that revenues may have remained high because of the volume of transactions, such as refinancing, occurring in the past year. The Bar Foundation’s law-school-loan forgiveness program, recognized as a national trendsetter, received $72,000. It provides a recruiting and retention tool for the state’s legal services organizations that cannot match the salaries paid to lawyers in the private sector. Through the loan forgiveness program, attorneys working in legal services are eligible to receive law school loan repayment assistance. This program allows lawyers entering the legal services field to maintain a focus on their primary job. (See the Spring 2004 issue of the Bar Foundation’s Quorum pages 4 and 5 for recent articles describing the program and its benefits.)
|
|
Home | About the Bar | For Members | For the Public | Legal Links | Publications | Online Store New Hampshire Bar Association |
