DEBT FOR LAW SCHOOL GRADUATES GROWS

WASHINGTON, D.C. (December 18, 2006) – Law school debt, according to a nationwide survey released today by Equal Justice Works, is harming the legal profession and our justice system. Public service is a calling for many law school graduates, but research on employment trends finds an alarming shortage of public sector and social justice jobs that provide a reasonable standard of living for those with educational debt, which now stands between many law school graduates and their desire to pursue public service careers.

The mortgage-sized debt burdens of law school graduates have far-reaching effects according to Financing the Future: Responses to the Rising Debt of Law Students. It is issued by Equal Justice Works, the leading national group organizing, training and supporting public service minded law students and creating summer and postgraduate public-interest jobs.

"A recent public law school graduate with average law debt earning an average public interest salary will have about $1,500 monthly to pay for rent, groceries and all the other expenses of living after making a standard monthly payment on their law loans," says Heather Wells Jarvis, author of the study and program manager for law school advocacy and outreach at Equal Justice Works. High debt and low salaries affect recruitment and retention in the government and nonprofit workforce and threaten to strike a debilitating blow to the future of full-time public service, says Jarvis.

The main problem, Jarvis says, is that scores of low-income people lose access to justice when high debt prevents lawyers from serving in government and nonprofit organizations. Public service jobs include those dealing with disaster relief, immigrant, disability and civil rights issues, among others.

Jarvis noted positive developments, however. The report finds that many law schools, states, and philanthropists are responding to the crisis by establishing and improving financial programs for lawyers entering public interest and public service fields.

More than 80 percent of law school grads borrow to pay for their law degree. On average, the amount borrowed was close to $80,000 at a private school and a little more than $50,000 at a public school. The median entry-level salary for an attorney in a public-interest organization was $40,000.

As student debt grows, more law schools are establishing Loan Repayment Assistant Programs, or LRAPs. The report notes that in 2000, 47 law schools reported having LRAPs; by 2004, 81 law schools had LRAPs. This year, 100 law schools (about half of the nation's law schools) have these programs. Fifty-five law schools have public interest scholarships and 22 schools report funding postgraduate public interest fellowships.

Unfortunately, Jarvis found, "many financial assistance programs provide relatively modest benefits to graduates, considering the vast burden of educational debt."

Financing the Future provides detailed information on available debt relief programs, including public interest scholarships, loan repayment assistant programs (LRAPs) and postgraduate public interest fellowship programs. It is available at www.equaljusticeworks.org.

Equal Justice Works, a nonprofit, nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1986 by law students dedicated to working for equal justice on behalf of underserved communities and causes. Today, Equal Justice Works is the national leader in creating summer and postgraduate public interest opportunities for law students and lawyers as well as in urging more public interest programming at law schools. For more information about Equal Justice Works, visit www.equaljusticeworks.org.

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