ROBERT E. HIRSHON, a Portland, Maine, attorney who this summer takes office as the president of the American Bar Association, discussed loan forgiveness, judicial independence and other issues he plans to address as ABA president in a keynote speech at the NH Bar Foundation Annual Dinner.

One of Hirshon’s presidential initiatives will be promoting law school debt-relief for attorneys in public interest positions. The NHBF last year established a Law School Loan Assistance Program for qualifying attorneys at New Hampshire Legal Assistance (NHLA), Legal Advice & Referral Center (LARC) and Pro Bono Referral System. NH is only the fifth state, along with Oregon, Washington, Minnesota and North Carolina, to implement this approach to recruiting and retaining talented public interest lawyers.

Hirshon said that statistics show that younger lawyers today are not doing as much pro bono work as in the past, and he used to wonder if it was because lawyers today don’t share the desire to "make a difference" in their careers. Through his travels as a member of various pro bono panels, including the ABA’s Center for Pro Bono, Hirshon discovered that on the contrary, today’s young lawyers have a "great desire" to do pro bono work. The obstacle keeping them from doing such work, Hirshon said, is "incredible law school debt."

Hirshon cited statistics on such debt: From 1993 to 1998, the average law student debt increased by 40 percent. The average 1998 law school student graduated owing over $70,000. And it’s anticipated that in 2001, the average law student will graduate with debt in excess of $90,000. Having to pay off these loans, Hirshon said, prevents young lawyers from taking lower-paying jobs in legal services when they can be making $140,000 a year on Wall Street. "You can’t take a job for $35,000 a year—which is what Legal Services Corporation pays—and pay off that kind of debt," he said.

So as a presidential initiative, Hirshon will create a commission that will examine "and hopefully follow NH’s lead in effectuating programs for law school loan repayments." The commission will involve legal services organizations, bar foundations and law schools from across the country and will work to create a number of models for and legislative proposals addressing loan forgiveness, he said. Hirshon will push for Congress to extend Perkins Loan legislation—which allows doctors some loan forgiveness if they go to work in underserved communities—to attorneys.

Hirshon also touched upon the issue of judicial independence, something he says is near and dear to NH in the aftermath of last year’s Supreme Court troubles. "That spoke of the three branches of government and what can happen when one branch falls out of that delicate harmony that keeps it in balance with the others," Hirshon said. And he spoke of the recent decision by the Bush administration to "disinvite the ABA" from peer evaluation of federal judges, a 50-year tradition that was started by Pres. Eisenhower, a Republican. As ABA president, Hirshon hopes to put or keep measures in place to help ensure a high level of judicial independence.

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