Debt forgiveness as an incentive for legal aid
I enjoyed reading the letter from the president in the November
eJournal. One way I think the State Bar could make a tremendous impact: law
school student loan forgiveness. Many of us wish to be able to pursue more
noble work, more pro bono hours, more meaningful assignments, but most of us do
not have the financial ability to do so.
If you want to activate all of the young idealist lawyers in
the state, those who dream of being able to volunteer, the answer is really
simple: Give us an exit out of the noose hanging around our necks. I'm sure
there are a myriad number of ways of doing this. I would imagine it would be easy
to fundraise for this program. Perhaps donors could choose to sponsor
particular projects that attorneys are working on?
This is a better solution than the loan forgiveness programs
because those programs require a full-time commitment, the salaries are too low.
Thus there is little incentive for associates to leave their high-paying jobs,
since their loans will still hang on for at least a decade – if they stay at
the job long enough. It also allows attorneys who cannot work full-time jobs to
use their licenses for good, rather than not at all.
It saddens me to think all of the good work that could be
getting done that isn't. Many lawyers are too scared to do anything outside of
their job for fear of retribution with no backup plan or who are otherwise not
in a financial position to volunteer because of their hefty loan payments.
Caitlyn M. Obolsky
Berkeley
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