Seton Hall Looks to Expand LRAP Program, Thanks to Alums
Seton Hall Law School is one of about 100 law schools which offers a Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP) for its graduates to support public interest and government work. It is also one of several schools that currently does not include graduates working in prosecutor’s offices in their LRAP, but that may soon change thanks to the efforts of some Seton Hall alumni. The Star-Ledger has a story about two Seton Hall alumni working in the Essex County prosecutor’s office who have been actively lobbying their alma mater for changes to the LRAP program. They have created a website, a facebook page, and received support from the New Jersey State Bar Association.
The school is working actively to assess the issue and develop a response. Claudia St. Romain, an associate dean at Seton Hall, explains the purpose of the LRAP program:
“One of our goals was to remove some of the financial disincentives to our students who might have been not interested in going into some areas because of pay,” St. Romain said. “It was not our experience that the prosecutor’s office was one that students might have hesitated before entering.”
She assures the concerned alumni that the school is working on this, saying, “we hear our alums and we value them. We’re trying to figure out a resolution within the numbers and the dollars.”
This is an interesting issue for other schools with less-than-universal LRAPs to pay attention to, and we will provide updates here as they come.
