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Many law students take on extraordinary amounts of educational debt to finance increasingly expensive legal educations.  But those students on public-service career paths in particular must confront the fact that the primary tool they’ll have to dig out of debt – their salary – seems alarmingly insufficient to the task.

The Problem:

The recently released Law School Survey of Student Engagement (LSSSE) report (which provides some fascinating insights into an array of issues affecting law students) tells us:

“The percentage of full-time U.S. students expecting to graduate owing more than $120,000 is up notably in 2009 from prior years. In 2006, 2007, and 2008, the percentage of students expecting to owe more than $120,000 at graduation rose gradually each year. For example in 2006, 18% of students fell into this category. In 2007 the percentage rose to 19%, and 23% in 2008. This past year saw a 6% increase; in 2009, 29% of students expect to graduate with this level of debt.”

Cliff’s Notes Version: Just about 3 in 10 full-time students expect to leave law school with over $120,000 in debt.  Further, according the the LSSSE report, the percentage of such students is rising more rapidly among students at public law schools.

This makes sense in light of ABA data on law school tuitions, which show that public school tuitions have risen at a much faster clip than private school tuitions.  In 1987, the median tuition for a state resident at a state law school was $2124.  In 2007, it was $14,313.  Correspondingly, the 1987 median tuition figure at a private school was $8690.  In 2007, it was $32,168.  The private school tuition attracts most folks’ attention because of its sticker-shock effect.  But it is the public school tuition figure that, while lower in dollar value,  has risen much more quickly.  And alarmingly so.  Between 1987 and 2007, in-state median tuition at state schools skyrocketed by 573% compared with the 270% increase on the private-school side.  Traditionally, state schools have been highly attractive options for students on public-service career paths because of the relatively low cost of tuition.  To be sure, tuition is still lower in state schools, but relatively speaking state schools are not the bargains they used to be.  (And remember, these are median figures; by definition half of the schools in the measurement pool have tuitions higher than the median.)

Of course another problem deals with salaries offered in public-service positions.  NALP’s 2008 Public Sector & Public Interest Attorney Salary Report (we’ll release an updated version of the report later this year) paints a…let’s say “realistic”…picture.  The national, median starting salary for civil legal services lawyers was $40,000.  For local prosecutors, it was $45,675.

This combination of a high, anticipated debt load and relatively low salary leaves even those students who are most committed to public service to wonder if the reward is worth the sacrifice.

The Solutions  

1. Become financially literate.  It was easy to sign that promissory note before your 1L year, wasn’t it?  Be honest: did you read the fine print?  (Your author, who is a former legal services lawyer and who knows what it is like to struggle with student debt, did not read the fine print.  He does not think he is alone.) If you do not have a firm grasp on the nature of your borrowing, now is the time to learn.  Make an appointment with your financial aid office.  Call your lender.  Check out the self-help, educational materials offered by the Project on Student Debt.  Knowing exactly how much you’ve borrowed, what kinds of loans you have, and how interest will accrue on the principals is a key to managing your debt.  If you ignore it, it will grow more quickly than if you pay attention to it.
2. Keep borrowing to a minimum while you are in school.  Cutting out $1000 here and there as you apply for loan disbursements is very, very meaningful in the long run.  Be mindful of the “bar loans,” too, which are typically made available by private lenders to folks who need to supplement their incomes during the bar-exam prep period.  Many 3Ls take this approach: “Well, I’ve already borrowed $80,000.  What’s another $10,000?”  The answer: it’s another $10,000.  Interest will accumulate on it.  Private loans may not be as easy to manage as federal government loans either, and the interest rate is likely to be higher.
3. Get to know about Loan Repayment Assistance Programs (LRAPs).  LRAPs can be God-sends for newly minted public service lawyers who are scraping by on low salaries.  For many grads they are the difference between being able to pursue their career goals and, well, not being able.  Learn more about LRAPs on PSLawNet’s Financing a Public Interest Career page. 
4. Become familiar with the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007.  Heard of the CCRAA?  This federal legislation 1) created a new repayment option for qualifying public service lawyers – called Income Based Repayment (IBR), and 2) established a loan forgiveness program which will forgive eligible educational debt after a 120-month (10-year) period of repayment.  These programs are designed to work so that, after paying via IBR for period of time, a public service lawyer may be eligible to to have the rest of their eligible loans forgiven.  The CCRAA could have a huge impact in the public interest community – significantly lightening the load for debt-laden public interest attorneys and leading to a forgiveness of eligible debt altogether.
5. Take advantage of Equal Justice Works’ resources.  No organization has done more work on student-debt issues for public service lawyers than Equal Justice Works. Visit their Student Debt Relief page, and you’ll find links to educational resources on the CCRAA, details on various LRAP programs, FAQ’s, archived student-debt webinars led by a national expert on the issue, and more. 

In Summary…

A weighty student debt load can be a formidable obstacle for a student or recent grad on a public service career path.  It must be taken seriously, and each student/grad should “take ownership” of their borrowing by becoming as well informed as possible about its consequences.  While daunting, the student-debt obstacle need not be insurmountable.  Wise, fully-informed borrowing decisions, the aquisition of knowledge about how to manage debt, some perseverance, and some common sense may make all the difference in pursuing a unique and rewarding public service career.  Good luck!

– Steve Grumm

Post-graduate fellowships can be a great way to put your newly acquired law degree to good use. The Daytona Beach News-Journal reported on the success of Shelly Campbell (a recent law school graduate working at Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida thanks to an Equal Justice Works Fellowship) in helping a homeless veteran navigate the benefits system in order to get into subsidized housing.

You can learn more about EJW fellowships and many other post-graduate fellowship opportunities on the PSLawNet Fellowships Page, and search for hundreds of fellowship opportunities in our jobs database.

Many public interest employers – particularly those who run litigation-heavy offices, like public defenders and prosecutors – evaluate interviewees by putting them on the hot seat.  So-called “stress interviews” may take many forms, from courtroom-hearing role play, to a very difficult hypothetical, to an interviewer being purposefully stand-offish and combative.  Such exercises are designed to test an interviewee’s mettle. 

Want to know what to expect in a stress interview, and how to beat the interviewer’s expectations?  Download “Surviving Stress(ful) Interviews” from the NALP Bulletin archives.  This article, written by former legal services lawyer Nicole Ayala, reviews commonly asked questions and offers strategies for success.

Today’s Expert: Barbara Moulton is the Assistant Dean for Public Interest Programs at Georgetown University Law Center, from which she also graduated in 1989.  Since 1995, Dean Moulton has directed the Office of Public Interest and Community Service (OPICS) at GULC.  OPICS provides career advice to students pursuing public interest legal careers, and runs the school’s extensive pro bono program.  Dean Moulton formerly served as a staff attorney with the Alliance for Justice in Washington, DC.

New Year’s Resolutions for Your Summer Job Search:

1. I will be proactive in finding the right position for me. Public sector job searching should never be reactive!  If you wait for specific positions to be posted on PSLawNet, on your school’s internship database, or through a formal recruitment fair, you will miss hundreds of opportunities that might be better suited for you.  Remember, many public sector employers never formally advertise positions, and not being pro-active means you could miss the perfect beginning to your public sector career.
   • TIP: Do an organizational search on PSLawNet rather than an opportunity search.  Doing so will help you identify more organizations that fit your particular subject-matter and/or geographic interests.
2. I will not assume that “unpaid” means “low-quality.” Too many law students believe that unpaid internships offer less value than paid positions.  This is categorically untrue.  Ideally, all public sector summer positions would be paid, but unfortunately only a small number of them are, and many of the most competitive and prestigious ones are not.  If your plan is to pursue a public sector career – or even if you just want an excellent public sector position for a summer – you shouldn’t conduct your summer search on the basis of paid vs. unpaid.  You should be looking at how a position will help you down the road.  Will it help you break into a particular geographic location?  Will it get you a foot in the door with a specific employer?  Will you develop practical skills that will be of interest to future employers?   Financial considerations aside, these are much more important questions to consider than whether a position is paid or not.
   • TIP:  Check out PSLawNet’s Summer Funding page; many outside sources of funding exist for public interest internships.  Even if your school offers some summer funding, you can often supplement that with outside funding.
3. I will spend more time on my cover letters. Cover letters are the key to successful public sector applications.  But they take a lot of time and effort, and many law students give them far too little attention.  Employers seek candidates who are genuinely interested in them and committed to the work they do.  Your cover letter is the vehicle for convincing them that you are such a candidate.  It should address convincingly why you are interested in that organization, providing specifics about how your background, skills, and interests dovetail with its mission and work.
   • TIP:  Highlight unique skills and background.  Listing basic law school coursework or legal research and writing skills is fine, but neither will make you stand out among your peers.  Relevant language skills, work experience, or even undergraduate coursework are more likely to differentiate you from others.
4. I will be persistent. If you don’t hear back immediately from an employer, do not assume it means the employer is not interested.  Instead, follow up with a short, polite email or phone call inquiring about the status of your application.  It is perfectly appropriate to do so unless an employer has stated it does not want inquiries.  Be persistent!  Sometimes it makes all the difference.
   • TIP:  If you get a vibe from an employer that it does not want additional follow-up, trust your instinct and back off at least for a bit.  Your career services advisor can help you determine when it’s appropriate to contact the employer again.
5. I will persevere and not get discouraged. Thousands of public interest summer opportunities exist, but unfortunately there is no one-stop shopping for them.  Employers have different timing and different requirements, making the process sometimes seem drawn-out and discouraging.  If your first round of applications doesn’t yield positive results, meet with your career services advisor to come up with a plan for round two.  Many organizations do not hire until later in the spring, so perseverance is important.  Remember, it only takes one positive response to put you on the path to a rewarding and reinvigorating summer!
   
   • TIP: Have both ‘reach’ and ‘safety’ employers in your round-one applications.  If your preference is to be in a major metropolitan area for the summer, be mindful that positions in those areas are likely to be the most competitive.  You might think about also applying to some employers in less popular locations where you would be willing to spend the summer.

Just a quick note here. In case you’re looking for more online reading opportunities, Laws.com put together a list of the “Top 50 Justice Blogs.”  Aaron over at Equal Justice Works blogged about it earlier this week.

Georgetown and UC Berkeley plan to “dovetail their forgiveness policies” with the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007 for eligible graduates who commit to public service careers, according to the National Law Journal.  Essentially, the schools will cover the graduates’ payment obligations through the CCRAA’s Income Based Repayment (IBR) program for 10 years, at which time their remaining debt could be forgiven through Act’s Public Service Loan Forgiveness provision.  Students who are able to reap the full benefit of these programs should be able to finance their legal educations for free.

Since the CCRAA’s passage, there has been much discussion about the interplay between its repayment and loan foregiveness provisions and those of other programs, whether law-school based, employer based, and so forth.  GULC and Berkeley are placing CCRAA at the center of their LRAP solar systems, and other LRAP programs will revolve around it.

Google has been known to jump headlong into new web-based initiatives in search of the next big success.  Some do succeed (Google Maps = Super Cool) and some do not (“Orkut,” Google’s social networking site which has not quite established the brand recognition of myspace or facebook).

Now, Google has leapt into the world of computer-based legal research via a searchable case database on its Google Scholar site.  Here is an announcement from the Google Blog.

Will this free offering knock the fee-charging West and Lexis up against the ropes?  Not anytime soon.  A blurb in the ABA Journal points out that Google Scholar, while easy to use, does not include a statute/code database, and does not offer a case citator a la Shepard’s.

Nevertheless, and as with all of Google’s undertakings, this initiative is worth watching.  And it may prove a useful arrow in the quivers of public interest lawyers whose access to the fee-charging databases is limited.