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Bar News - January 5, 2001 Loan Forgiveness Program Aids Public Interest Attorneys THE NEW HAMPSHIRE Bar Foundation has kicked off a new Law School Loan Assistance Program for qualifying attorneys at New Hampshire Legal Assistance (NHLA), Legal Advice & Referral Center (LARC) and Pro Bono Referral System. New Hampshire is only the fifth state, along with Oregon, Washington, Minnesota and North Carolina, to implement this creative approach to recruiting and retaining talented public interest lawyers. In recent years, huge salaries for young associates in private firms and increasing law school loan burdens have deterred promising law school graduates from accepting staff attorney positions at the legal services programs that assist the poor and elderly in New Hampshire. These debt burdens have also caused the departure of experienced and talented staff at these programs. "We have been sorry to see really great lawyers leave legal services because they were struggling under large law school debt," said Christina W. Abramson, executive director of the New Hampshire Bar Foundation. The Bar Foundation's Law School Loan Repayment Assistance Program, developed by staff at NHLA, is an innovative way to attract lawyers to work in the public sector by providing them with an incentive in the form of forgivable loans. This program is available to all attorneys employed by NHLA, LARC or Pro Bono. With the help of the Law School Loan Repayment Program, the attorneys who work for these organizations can begin to pay on the principal balance of their law school loans and not just the interest. This program is a means to enable attorneys to continue in the work to which they have aspired. "The Bar Foundation's loan forgiveness program is a great example of how we work together with our grantees to support creative strategies - in this case a way to attract talented lawyers and help them pay down debt so that they can stay committed to legal services for the long term," said Abramson. The Bar Foundation has funded $30,000 for the program this year, as it did last year. There is no set number of attorneys who can participate in the loan forgiveness program; among those who qualify for the program, funds are divided up based on need. According to Abramson, there has been much interest in the program from other states. The Bar Foundation has received numerous phone calls from state and law school loan programs inquiring about the level of need and level of funding in NH and the criteria for making the awards, Abramson said. Those programs have also requested copies of the Bar Foundation's program documents. According to Nancy Mintie of the Inner City Law Center, a Louisiana group called The Uncommon Good and other organizations are working together to pass a California Senate bill to establish a $10 million educational loan repayment fund in California for lawyers and health professionals working for the public interest. "High educational expenses for law and medical school currently prohibit many professionals from accepting low-paying jobs in the public sector. It is hoped that the fund will enable more people to serve indigent [individuals]," said Mintie. The NH Bar Foundation has funded the Law School Loan Assistance Program with IOLTA funds for both 2000 and 2001. The continuation of the program will depend on maintaining adequate IOLTA revenues. For more information about the Law School Loan Assistance Program, please call or email Tina Abramson at 224-6942. |