Do You Have Experience With Loan-Forgiveness Programs?

Weblogger Cathy Gellis has asked me to follow up on a query she made on her weblog concerning loan-forgiveness programs as they relate to law students who go into public-interest law:

I'm hoping I can get ideas from others in the blogosphere on how other law schools support public interest legal work. What kinds of programs are offered? Loan forgiveness? Grants? How do these work, and how are the schools able to fund them? What kind of endowment do they need to do this? Do they give money to all the students who need it? How much? A lot to a few, or a little to a lot, or something else?

Cathy is looking for real-life stories from people who have (a) experience with loan-forgiveness programs or (b) experience raising money from law-school alumni to fund such programs.

Cathy's original post is here. If you have helpful information, you can comment below or e-mail Cathy using the address on her weblog.

Comments

[Mike]

Here is some useful information:

ABA Directory of Law School Public Interest and Pro Bono Programs

Pepperdine instituted a loan repayment program last year. (Here is its summary). I was told by the people who spearheaded it that it took about 3 million to perpetually fund it, but that 1 million was enough to get it started. Contact the people at Pepperdine's Advocates for Public Interest Law here. They're nice folks. But if they don't respond to your e-mail, leave a comment here or e-mail me. I don't have the time to talk to them now, but I'll help you if you absolutely need it.

Good luck!

[Cathy]

Thanks! (and thanks, Evan!) I will pass this information on to the administration officials at my school. I took on this research project at their behest (well, they asked for input -- it was my idea to use blogs to gather it together.)

In doing some preliminary research, and based on comments I got from the alumni office, it seems that it's still a foreign concept to many people that schools could, or should, provide financial support to students (graduates) who opt for less lucrative legal careers. So if a hearty discussion on blogs helps make it more widely accepted, all the better.