Dear Law Students and Friends:

As many of you are aware, the current credit crisis has made it significantly more difficult for graduating law students to obtain private loans to cover expenses related to bar exam preparation. Current federal guidelines permit only the fee for the bar exam itself to be covered by federally guaranteed student loans, forcing many students to rely on credit cards or to seek employment to cover the cost of bar review courses and living expenses.

The Alliance for Legal Education is a coalition of law schools and other organizations in the legal community working to ensure that students who have invested in a legal education have the funding they need to prepare for the bar exam. The Alliance has proposed a solution: allow costs associated with preparing for the bar to be included in the cost of attendance, which would, in turn, make these costs eligible for federal student loans. At the recent meeting of the ABA Law Student Division Board of Governors, division leadership voted to support this concept and to encourage law students nationwide to do the same.

To effect this policy change, and to do so in time to help this year's graduating law students, it is critical to contact legislators now to urge their support of this initiative. The Alliance has established a website where you can learn more about this initiative and use the online facility to contact your legislators about this issue.

Sam Arora
Georgetown University Law Center
Washington, DC

 

 

Yasmin J. Gabriel
Howard University School of Law
Washington, DC

 

Kerven Montfort
Florida State University College of Law
Tallahassee, FL

 

• Law Schools with Loan Repayment Assistance Programs
• Law Schools with Public Interest Scholarship Programs
• Law Schools that are starting or improving an LRAP

• President Bush Signs College Cost Reduction and Access Act
• Highlights of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act
• College Cost Reduction and Access Act Article
• Loan Forgiveness Tool Kit - Check back soon for additional materials.
• A PowerPoint Presentation (available as a PowerPoint or in PDF format)
• Other National articles on this recent change
  • Indiana Daily Student (November 27, 2007)
  • The Columbia Chronicle, Columbia College/Chicago (November 26, 2007)
  • The National Law Journal (November 20, 2007)
  • The Louisiana Weekly (October 29, 2007)
  • Dallas Morning News (October 8, 2007)
  • American Academy of Family Physicians News (October 2, 2007)
  • The Washington Post (September 28, 2007)
  • The Washington Post (September 27, 2007)
  • ABA Journal (September 25, 2007)
  • San Francisco Chronicle (September 16, 2007)
  • USA Today (September 9, 2007)
• See if your member of Congress voted to support this legislation:
  • House of Representatives
  • Senate
    Note: Votes for or against the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007 were in support or against much more than IBR and ICR.

Please share your personal experiences or hardships facing you as a law student, whether they relate to law school debt, the rising cost of tuition, admissions standards, and so on.  Your story will be shared with Congressional representatives and ABA leaders, and will aid our efforts to fight for law students on a wide range of issues.

Visit Share Your Story

In April 2008, Law Student Division leaders were in Washington, DC to discuss important issues facing law students nationwide with members of Congress and their staffs. As part of the ABA’s annual two-day visit to Washington, the LSD’s leaders thanked members for supporting increased federal loan repayment options for public interest attorneys, and encouraged support for a robust Prosecutor/Public Defender loan forgiveness program.  LSD leaders also raised the specter of the sudden drop in the number of loan lenders, and the rising rate of mental health issues on law school campuses.  Among others, LSD leaders visited the offices of Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Congressman Pete Visclosky (D-IN).  Click here for a complete listing of the members that met with law student leaders. Tell me more about the Law Student Division's participation in ABA Day in Washington

This Congress has seen a great deal of activity on the issue of student debt.  In September, the House and Senate both passed legislation on federal loan repayment assistance programs.  At the end of September, President Bush signed this piece of legislation into law.  Tell me more about this legislation

Congress is also currently discussing Senator Durbin's Prosecutor and Public Defender Incentive Act (S.442), which allows eligible attorneys to receive student loan debt repayments of up to $10,000 per year with an aggregate over time of $60,000 for those employed as prosecutors and public defenders for three or more years.