Are You Missing Out on Loan Assistance Money? State-Based Loan Repayment Assistance Programs
by Sam Halpert, PSJD Fellow (2014 – 2015)
Law school is expensive (no citation needed). For many legal jobs, including public interest and government sector ones, annual salaries often fail to measure up to the cost of a law degree. This isn’t a new problem, though. Future public interest lawyers have had to worry about their loans for a long time, and one of the key tools we have for dealing with our loan burdens is the LRAP.
LRAP is short for Loan Repayment Assistance Program. (Mercifully, everyone that offers one seems to use the same acronym.) The terms and conditions vary widely, but they all aim to provide some sort of relief to lawyers in low-salaried, public-interest-oriented positions struggling to pay off the “Esq.” at the end of their names. Many, many pixels burn throughout the blogosphere advising prospective law students on the wisdom of inquiring into schools’ LRAP programs (see, e.g., MsJD’s 2013 piece on the subject). If you’re interested in finding out more about these academic LRAPs, check out Equal Justice Works’ comprehensive list. However, odds are that if you’re lucky enough to have attended a school offering an LRAP you’re already aware of these programs.
What you may not know is that another category of LRAPs exist, based not on where you studied but on where you practice. If you work in one of twenty-three states (or the District of Columbia) you may be eligible to take part in these programs. The time to find out is now. For example, the DC Bar Foundation’s 2015 LRAP is holding two mandatory information sessions next month (the first is October 7th). To find out whether an LRAP is available in your state, check out the ABA’s catalog of all 24 state-based programs.
If you don’t find your state on the ABA’s list, consider asking why. There were only 8 such statewide LRAPs in 2003, when the ABA Commission on Loan Repayment and Forgiveness published its Resource Guide for Creating State LRAPs for Public Service Lawyers. If your state isn’t currently offering assistance to its public interest lawyers, the ABA’s resources and the existing practices of half the states in the country might help you and your colleagues start a conversation and answer difficult questions about drafting, funding and implementing a program wherever you practice and pay your loans.