Indiana programs help public sector attorneys with loans

Along with the government repayment and forgiveness programs designed to help new attorneys in the public sector pay their student loans, law schools and bar associations have established similar programs.

All four accredited law schools in Indiana offer some type of assistance, and the Indiana Bar Foundation as well as Indiana Legal Services Inc. make aid available.

“I think of the federal programs as icing on the cake, which is great because private funding can’t come close to covering all the graduates doing public interest work,” said Notre Dame Law School Associate Dean Robert Jones.

The private and public programs are touted as being vital to filling the positions in nonprofits and government entities that tend to be low-paying. According to 2014 data cited by the American Bar Association, graduates of public law schools have an average student loan debt of $84,000 and private law school graduates accumulated an average debt of $122,000. Comparatively, a 2014 national survey showed the starting salary for legal aid attorneys was $44,600; for prosecutors and public defenders the annual pay was about $50,000.

Jones described going into public interest work as a leap of faith. Law school graduates are taking a risk because of the lower salaries but repayment assistance helps make that leap look less frightening.

Within Indiana, loan assistance programs include:

• Valparaiso University Law School and the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law offer repayment funds to graduates who work full time in the public sector. IU McKinney will provide up to $5,000 to help cover a graduate’s annual loan payments.

• Indiana University Maurer School of Law has the Kathleen A. Buck Loan Reduction Assistance Program. This initiative provides up to $4,000 to help graduates who are headed to the public sector pay for their bar review course, their bar application expenses and their living expenses while preparing for the bar exam.

• Indiana Legal Services Inc. and the Office of the Indiana Attorney General have repayment assistance programs for their attorneys.

• The Indiana Bar Foundation administers the Justice Richard M. Givan Loan Repayment Assistance Program. This benefit is available to attorneys serving the civil legal needs of low-income Hoosiers.

Notre Dame’s Loan Repayment Assistance Program is among the most generous. Created in 2001 and recently endowed, the program has disbursed more than $1.1 million to just over 100 J.D. graduates working in public interest jobs.

Through the program, money is provided to cover 100 percent of the monthly federal and private student loan payments of the eligible NDLS graduates who are working in the public sector and making under $50,000. The amount loaned is capped at $12,000 a year but if a participant in the Notre Dame Loan Repayment Assistance Program stays in public service for at least three years, their LRAP loans for that period will be forgiven.

Assistance is available for up to 10 years after the graduates receive their law degrees.

At the end of 10 years, which is the standard payoff period for student loans, NDLS graduates could have their loan obligations satisfied without ever having to use their own money.

A majority of law school graduates do not go into the public sector even with the assistance programs. From 2011 through 2014, IU McKinney sent 231 graduates, or nearly 20 percent, into government jobs and 50 graduates, or just over 4 percent, into public interest.

Still, Jones said if a small number are able to take jobs at a nonprofit or government agency that they otherwise could not because of their loan burden, then the programs are worth the effort.

Kimberly Davey, 2010 NDLS graduate, credits the LRAP program with enabling her to work as a public defender in Manhattan.

The public sector offered her the opportunity to do the trial work that she wanted, but the low pay would not have stretched far enough to cover her living expenses and pay off the nearly $200,000 she owed in student loans.

Notre Dame’s program eased the student loan worries. Not only did the assistance allow her to join the public defender’s office, but it also gave her the chance to stay there and gain experience instead of having to jump to another job.

Davey found the work to be engaging and exciting. Her colleagues, she said, are inspiring. They are committed to working with the less fortunate and are not driven by a paycheck.

She recently got married and her income combined with her husband’s made her ineligible to continue in the Notre Dame program. But she still has no plans to change jobs.

“I’ve been very happy,” she said. “I don’t know that I’ll ever leave now that I’m here.”•