How LRAPs Can Help You Pursue a Career in Public Interest Law

Summary

LRAPs, or Loan Repayment Assistance Programs, make it easier for those considering careers in public interest law to pursue their passions and alleviate the financial burden of their student loan debt. LRAPs are programs created by individual law schools or organizations to help graduates with student debt pay off their loans while pursuing public interest law jobs.


LRAPs allow individuals to fully pursue a career in the public interest while still making the financial commitment to pay off their loans. These programs provide assistance either in the form of loan forgiveness or direct payments to the lender. LRAPs are typically geared towards graduates who are starting their careers in public interest law and can provide financial assistance to help pay off their loans.

Many states now have or have created LRAPs as well, which can add an additional layer of assistance for graduates. State LRAPs give out grants or loans to qualifying individuals and can be used to pay off a portion of student loans.

The benefits of LRAPs are many. They help graduates financially by offering assistance with loan repayment, helping graduates focus more of their funds on other areas of their lives. This can include insurance, housing, medical expenses, and other related costs. Additionally, LRAPs offer an increased level of security for those working in the public interest, as they will be able to stay in their job for longer periods of time without having to worry about their student loan debt.

LRAPs are also available to individuals who have already begun their careers in public interest law, and have amassed student loan debt in the process. These programs can provide assistance to help pay off their loans and allow them to stay in their chosen field.

Overall, the use of LRAPs offers an invaluable financial security to those considering or already in the public interest law field. LRAPs provide aid in the form of loan forgiveness or direct payments to the lender to help alleviate the financial burden of student loan debt. They also give individuals the freedom to focus more of their funds on other areas of their lives, making it easier to stay in the field of public interest law. LRAPs are an important resource for those in the public interest law field, and their use should be encouraged.
 

What Are LRAPs?

LRAPs are Loan Repayment Assistance Programs designed to make it easier for those in public interest law careers to remain in their positions despite lower pay. LRAPs help attorneys by making it possible to remain in their current positions while repaying student loans instead of finding more lucrative positions elsewhere.
 

How Do LRAPs Work?

LRAPs are typically set up in the form of loan repayment grants. These grants provide specific assistance to those in the legal field. Assistance is usually provided in the form of a loan forgiveness program that pays off part or all of a graduate's student loan debt. The goal is to make it easier for graduates to pursue a career in public interest law.
 

Who Qualifies?

LRAPs are available to those who are employed in public interest law. To be eligible for a program, individuals must meet a number of criteria, such as completing a certain number of hours of legal service and meeting specific income levels. For those who do qualify, LRAPs can provide a significant amount of loan repayment assistance, making it easier to stay in public interest positions.
 

Benefits of LRAPs

LRAPs provide a number of benefits for those in the public interest field. The most obvious benefit is financial. LRAPs make it easier for those in public interest careers to take on student loan debt without worrying about repaying it. LRAPs also offer other benefits, such as job security and the satisfaction of pursuing a career in public service.
 

Who Funds LRAPs?

LRAPs are typically funded by tax-exempt foundations, law firms, and other private entities. These organizations recognize the importance of providing legal services to the public and are willing to invest in those who are working to make a difference in the legal field. With their support, graduates of law school can pursue public interest law without fear of an unmanageable debt burden.

<<"The gist of the program is to help more people enter into the public interest realm. While each program varies, it will essentially forgive or pay off a portion, if not all, of your student loans," said Joe Delamater, national representative of Equal Justice Works, an organization that organizes, trains, and supports students interested in public service. "The idea being those who go into corporate law and are making many times the salary of, say, a public defender are unfairly advantaged. These fields, thus, tend to draw those who need all of that money to pay off the loans. By easing that burden, those who want to work in public interest positions can."

Nicky Fornarotto, Financial Aid & LRAP Administrator at Rutgers Law School-Newark, said she is very aware of how difficult a public service career can be for students dealing with rising tuition costs and educational debt levels. She said the average debt level for graduates of her school is $55,552.

"Our LRAP program was developed to provide financial assistance to help defray the law school debt obligations of our graduates who choose to pursue lower-paying public interest/public service careers," explained Fornarotto. "It also serves to support and encourage them to continue serving the people and causes traditionally under-represented by the private bar."

Rutgers' LRAP program is available for all graduates from the classes of 1997 and on who are employed in law-related public interest positions and who earn less than the annually set salary cap. The 2005 salary cap is $46,000 for single graduates and $72,000 for joint filers, with adjustments for years of LRAP-eligible service, child care, prior educational debt, un-reimbursed medical expenses, and so on. Fornarotto said that graduates can apply for LRAP funds for up to five years and, if eligible, will share a proportional share of the available funds in each of those years. Applicants who receive the largest rewards are those with the highest debts, lowest salaries, and the most years of LRAP service.

"This current year, 37 of our applicants were eligible for the program and have been awarded a total of $143,872. This amount represents an average award of $3,888 and approximately 69% of the aggregate annual debt service owed by these graduates," said Fornarotto.

Rutgers' LRAP was cited by the Equal Justice Works' 2004 report, Financing the Future, as the LRAP with the largest growth rate (89%) during the last few years and was also ranked as one of the top four LRAPs in the country in terms of per student spending for public law schools.

Approximately, 16 out of 187 ABA-accredited law schools have established scholarship programs for students who plan on pursuing careers in public service law. Rutgers offers fellowships and scholarships for law students with demonstrated affinities for public interest law. The Marsha Wenk Fellowship and the Kinoy/Stavis Fellowship are awarded each year to five students who also take on a leadership roles in the law school community. The Wenk Fellowship includes an internship at the NJ-ACLU and a stipend. The Kinoy/Stavis Fellowship includes working in Rutgers Constitutional Litigation Clinic and a stipend. "We also have institutional scholarships which are awarded on an annual basis and are earmarked specifically for students who have demonstrated their commitment to public interest," said Fornarotto.

Not all schools offer LRAP programs. Melody Goldberg is president of the Student Chapter of Equal Justice Works at Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis. The activities of the student group include fundraising the $100,000 needed to establish the Loan Repayment Assistance Program Endowment to assist students who are considering careers in public interest law. After one year, IU School of Law-Indianapolis' LRAP will begin to repay loans with the interest earned on the endowment.

"This is not a program designed to allow public interest lawyers to live affluently. Rather, it is designed to allow law school graduates the ability to realistically consider a career in public interest law by lessening—even minimally—the extreme financial burden which eliminated this option in the past," said Goldberg.

Delamater, who is a law student and a member of the group at IU-Indianapolis, said that almost all the group's events are putting proceeds toward the LRAP endowment program. Their Day of Pay program calls on donors to volunteer one day of their summer jobs' pay to go toward the LRAP endowment. He hopes the LRAP will be established by the time he graduates.

Nonetheless, he said pursuing a career in public interest law is a great career path because it can also open up additional career options.

"Public interest usually puts you in the courtroom several times a week. Right off the bat, you are getting real life experience. This cannot be said for the majority of private-sector jobs. Thus, your marketability improves if you should choose to enter the private field after some time. You have that much of an advantage over the rest."

Delamater does admit that public interest law will mean lower pay. According to the Equal Justice Works website, the average salary for a public interest lawyer is $35,000 a year.

LRAPs have helped the careers of countlesss law school graduates interested in public service. Peter Bouckaert, a '97 graduate of Stanford University Law School was named 2004 Stanford Public Interest Lawyer of the Year. Bouckaert, who serves as Human Rights Watch's senior emergencies researcher, said he went to Stanford as "an activist determined to graduate as an activist lawyer."

He said pursuing a career in public interest law would have been impossible without the assistance of the LRAP program. While in law school, Bouckaert worked 20 hours a week as a research and teaching assistant to try to keep his educational debt down, but his loan burden was still too crushing.

"The LRAP program allowed me to attend a truly great law school and still be able to begin a public interest career straight after graduation," he said. "Just a year out of law school, in late 1998, I was documenting war crimes in Kosovo. The evidence I collected there has been introduced in the [former President of Serbia Slobodan] Milosevic case and in other Yugoslav Tribunal cases from Kosovo."

Susan Kilbourne, a '99 graduate of Georgetown Law School, works as director of state policy and advocacy at Voices for America's Children. By helping her pay most of her monthly student loan payments, the LRAP program at Georgetown has allowed her to pursue her career objectives.

"I love knowing that I'm doing something to improve the lives of children across the country. I find that much more rewarding than a corporate job or even private practice," said Kilbourne. "Simply put, the LRAP program has allowed me to work in the public interest field. Without the financial support from the LRAP program, there is absolutely no way I could repay my student loans and support my family on the salaries available in child advocacy."