New York State Pro Bono Opportunities Guide
For Law Grads, Private Practice Pay Tough To Pass Up
New York Lawyer
September 1, 2006
By Douglas S. Malan and Sandhya Bathija
The Connecticut Law Tribune
More than 100 of the nation's nearly 200 laws schools now offer loan repayment assistance programs-a 20 percent increase from 2004-in an effort to lure law students into public service.
But despite the sharp increase in LRAP programs, only a small percentage of graduating law students are taking public interest jobs, according to a 2006-2007 study by Equal Justice Works. Statistics from the Washington, D.C.-based public interest law advocacy group show that most schools send between 1 percent and 5 percent of their students into public interest jobs, and 10 percent to 20 percent into government positions.
Limited Options
Yale Law School, which touts one of the most generous LRAPs in the country, is the only one of Connecticut's three law schools to offer such a program. Funded since 1989 by a combination of endowments and money from the law school's budget, the program pays off a Yale Law education in full, if a graduate earns less than $45,000 per year, and pays a sliding scale percentage of the tuition for graduates earning higher salaries. Last year, the program paid out $2.4 million for 300 graduates, Associate Dean Megan A. Barnett said.
To qualify for the Yale program, a graduate does not need to go into traditional public interest legal careers-or even a law-related job. Its LRAP currently assists some high school teachers, Barnett noted. "We wanted to make ours as flexible as possible," he said. "Public service comes in many guises. I think [the school's loan repayment program] is vital. Legal education, not just at Yale, but everywhere is expensive."
A loan forgiveness program does not yet exist at Quinnipiac University School of Law, though one is currently in development, said Dean Brad Saxton. Instead, the school offers full-tuition scholarships for highly-qualified students who desire a public interest career.
Once the LRAP is established, Saxton said, it will be an option for students who discover an interest in public service during their time in law school. Regardless of when that interest blossoms, assistance must be available, he said.
"When salaries have not increased in public interest careers at the same pace as private careers, it makes the choice harder for students," Saxton observed.
The University of Connecticut School of Law does not offer an LRAP, though many students and faculty have testified before the state legislature imploring the adoption of such a program. So far, they've been unsuccessful.
The school does offer a summertime grant for students who desire a public service post while in law school. But after graduation, many students are wearing the "golden handcuffs" and choose higher-paying private practice jobs to pay off debt quicker, said UConn Law Associate Dean Ellen Rutt. "It's hard to sustain a lifestyle of any decency and pay back student loans," she said. "Certainly a robust LRAP would help."
Disturbing Data
Of the past six graduating classes, UConn Law School has sent approximately six students per year into public interest jobs and 18 students a year into government careers, out of an average graduating class of 184, according to statistics kept by Maria Rivera, the school's director of career services. The number of UConn graduates entering those fields has held steady in recent years except for the 2005 class, which saw a three fewer graduates enter the public sector compared to 2004.
Even with its ample loan repayment program, Yale has funneled just a slightly higher percentage of its recent graduating classes into government and public sector jobs. Between 14 and 17 percent of Yale's average class size of 190 graduates, and approximately 13 percent of UConn's took work with the government or in other public sector law. (The Yale figures are from the 2002-2005 school years; UConn's percentage is based on school years going back to 2000.)
Quinnipiac law school reported to Equal Justice Works that 2.2 percent of its 2005 graduating class of 205 students secured public interest jobs by February 2006. Government positions accounted for the employment of 14.2 percent of Quinnipiac's Class of 2005. Only one of the 175 members of the school's Class of 2004 chose to go into public service work; 35 of the 2004 grads secured government jobs.
The highest percentage of area law graduates taking government positions last year was from Western New England College School of Law in Springfield, Mass., according to data reported to Equal Justice Works. Twenty-two percent of the school's 2005 graduating class became government lawyers, up 8 percent from 2003 and 2004, WNEC Law Assistant Dean Paula Zimmer said. Public interest employment figures-3 percent of the 2005 graduating class-were comparable to those at the other schools.
With the incoming Fall 2007 class, WNEC plans to debut a scholarship program to encourage careers in public interest law. Money up front is more helpful to students, WNEC officials said, than loan repayment assistance for graduates buried in debt. The six scholarships will be available to full- and part-time students. For full-time students, they would pay at least 50 percent, or $15,000 a year, of their tuition costs, and as much as 100 percent for the most qualified students.
Approximately 130 of the law school's 850 current applicants have shown an interest in public service legal work and would be eligible for the scholarships, Dean Sam Stonefield said.
Maintaining employment in a public sector job is not required of scholarship recipients, Stonefield noted. The program will operate on the honor system. Stonefield acknowledged there's a risk of failure if graduates choose a different career direction. "That's a risk we're willing to take," he said. "There's a greater likelihood of producing more public interest lawyers."
More Incentives Needed
In most cases, scholarships and LRAPs, however, can't compete with the financial rewards of private practice.
The average starting salary for entry-level civil legal services jobs nationwide is $36,000, according to the 2006 Public Sector and Public Interest Attorney Salary Report, published by the National Association for Law Placement. The average starting salary for a first-year associate at private law firms, NALP determined, is $105,000.
Such income discrepancies negatively affect recruiting efforts by Connecticut's public defender and prosecutor offices, officials say. They also bolster the argument that loan forgiveness programs are needed when students, according to the American Bar Association, are carrying an average of $75,000 in law school debt.
"It's very difficult [to recruit to the public sector] if people have these crushing loans," said Deborah DelPrete Sullivan, legal counsel in the Office of the Chief Public Defender. "[Loan forgiveness] is a wonderful tool to help recruit individuals."
A bipartisan U.S. Senate bill, the Prosecutor and Defender Incentive Act-introduced in November 2005 by Sen. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., and Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Penn.-sought to provide student loan forgiveness for prosecutors and public defenders of up to $10,000 per year to a maximum of $60,000 in exchange for a minimum three-year commitment to the public sector. After the bill was reported out of committee in May, it has not advanced through Congress.
The Department of Justice offers limited loan forgiveness to federal prosecutors and public defenders at a rate as much as $6,000 per year not to exceed a total of $40,000 with a minimum three-year public service record.
Executive Assistant State's Attorney Judith Rossi said such federal funding is necessary, considering the difficulties encountered in convincing the state legislature to fund a loan forgiveness program.
Prosecutors and public defenders in Connecticut start at salaries of roughly $50,000. "The pay wouldn't be so bad if the loan debt weren't there," said Rossi, noting that her office's retention rate is high with two-thirds of the lawyers being there at least a decade. But "we've lost some very good minority candidates because of law school debt," she said.
Both Sullivan and Rossi said their offices lost candidates not only to the private sector but also to higher paying posts in the state Attorney General's office.
'Justice Gap' Persists
"If I were just graduating from law school and had the choice of starting at $30,000 or taking a private sector job at $100,000, it would be a hard decision to make," said Robert Echols, state support director for the American Bar Association Resource Center for Access to Justice Initiatives.
"While LRAP programs are effective for helping young lawyers be able to afford the careers, [they are still] insufficient," Echols said. "It's very important to just increase the funding for legal aid and get more lawyers involved in pro bono work."
"There just is not enough money nationally to make a dent in the justice gap," added Karen Sarjeant, vice president of programs and compliance for Legal Service Corp., which also recently launched a pilot LRAP for its legal aid programs.
Sarjeant said she doesn't think LRAPs and scholarships can close the "gap" on their own, nor should they be expected to. "There isn't just one reason why students don't go into the field. It's all part of a puzzle that has to be looked at from many different angles," Sarjeant said.
LRAPs will make it easier for a lawyer inclined to go into public interest to begin with, the ABA's Echols said. Bit even if salaries increased, it still takes a person who feels passionately about doing such work.
"No one is ever going to go into public service for the money, that's for sure," he said.
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