Debt relief for public interest lawyers with signing of ABA-supported bill

Public service lawyers gained additional ways to obtain student loan relief in August when President George W. Bush signed into law the Higher Education Reauthorization and College Opportunity Act of 2008 (P.L. 110-315).

The ABA lobbied for many of the provisions included in the final conference report.

“Among other provisions, this legislation includes programs to help our nation's prosecutor and public defender offices,” ABA Governmental Affairs Office Director Thomas M. Susman wrote in a letter to Senate and House conferees during their deliberation on the bill. “Currently, many of these offices are understaffed, unable to effectively recruit new lawyers in light of the crushing student loan debt students must assume and the comparatively low pay the positions offer.”

Specifically, the new law provides up to $10,000 a year in student loan relief for each of three years served in prosecutor or public defender offices.

Additionally, the final bill assists in the recruitment for legal assistance offices. While legal needs for the poor are unmet often in the best of times, the recent mortgage foreclosure crisis, natural disasters and the needs of returning military personnel are adding to the demand for help through legal assistance offices. “This legislation provides a modest student loan repayment benefit to help attract into understaffed offices new lawyers who are otherwise unable to consider or afford to remain for long in these positions,” the letter continues.

Under the law, lawyers may earn loan repayment of up to $6,000 a year in exchange for a three-year commitment to civil legal assistance practice. Another provision provides debt forgiveness for service in jobs of national need, including public interest legal services. Finally, the law also includes a program that cancels a percentage of federal public and community defender borrowers’ outstanding Perkin’s loan debt for performing certain kinds of public service jobs. Under the Perkin’s loan program, borrowers may qualify to have 100 percent of their loan forgiven with five years of service.

Each program has its own guidelines; some include rules that prevent a borrower from benefiting from more than one of these programs.

Public interest lawyers are not the only one to benefit from the new law. It also helps to enhance diversity within the legal profession by expanding the Thurgood Marshall Legal Educational Opportunity Program. The program offers training, coaching and financial assistance for disadvantaged students, including but not limited to racial and ethnic minorities. The grant activities that are covered through the expansion of the program include summer academic and pre-college training.

For more information about the new law and ABA efforts, please go to the government affairs legislative priorities Web site.

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