The double whammy of lower salaries and high educational debt are making it difficult for the public interest law sector to recruit and retain attorneys, according to a recent study by a national group. In a survey of more than 300 public interest law employers nationwide, 69 percent of employers reported significant difficulty in attorney recruitment, with 62 percent citing problems with attorney retention. Nearly 90 percent of those employers cited low salaries and educational debt as the primary factors responsible for recruiting woes. For retention of attorneys, the most-cited culprits were salaries, mentioned by 92 percent, and debt, by 82 percent. Other factors, such as geographical location, pressure to take a private- sector job and lack of upward mobility potential, were mentioned by less than 45 percent of respondents. The survey confirmed long-held suspicions, said David Stern, executive director of Equal Justice Works, formerly the National Association for Public Interest Law, which conducted the survey. "These findings demonstrate that the combination of low salary and high debt is lethal to the public service law community," he said. "When you offer salaries of less than $40,000 to persons with educational loans totaling more than $100,000, the result is epidemic problems in recruitment and retention." One solution proposed by Equal Justice Works is an increase in loan repayment assistance programs (LRAPs). A review of anecdotal responses appeared to indicate that when good LRAP programs are available, recruitment and retention problems decrease, said Sheila Siegel, the Equal Justice Works research associate who managed the survey. Some government agencies are already on the LRAP bandwagon. The U.S. State Department, for instance, has a program that provides student debt relief up to $6,000 per year of employment, to a maximum of $40,000. Equal Justice Works also touts its annual Career Fair in Washington, D.C. - to be held Oct. 25 to 26 this year - as a tool to match employers to law school graduates in this tougher market. It attracts about 200 employers a year from government, not-for-profit agencies and public interest law organizations. Last year's program cited the statistic that of 180 ABA-approved law schools, 52 offered some form of LRAP, although six schools accounted for 70 percent of all LRAP money disbursed. Students were also provided with tips and guidelines on ways to establish LRAPs at their law schools. The New York State Bar Association, meanwhile, is working on a plan that would utilize funds solicited from all segments of the legal industry to underwrite law school debt for young attorneys who opt to practice public interest law. Five states - North Carolina, Minnesota, Maryland, New Hampshire and Arizona - currently provide some degree of debt relief underwriting, though the amounts are limited. The New York Bar is hoping for much more extensive funding, leaning heavily on private law firms for contributions. A similar plan has been under study for some time by the American Bar Association. Its president, Robert Hirshon, asked for an extension of the study at the ABA national meeting in August. Hirshon said only 3.3 percent of law school graduates currently enter public interest law, compared to approximately 15 percent 25 years ago, a statistic he attributes largely to higher educational debt and the greater disparity between large private firm and public interest law salaries that exists today. This story appeared in the September 2002 edition of The National Jurist, www.nationaljurist.com.

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