Published: August 18, 2008 12:00 am            

Law students being offered debt relief for picking public service roles

Law students who want to pay off debt quickly now will have an incentive to enter public service.

A measure recently signed into law will pay back up to $60,000 of debt for law school graduates who become prosecutors and public defenders for at least three years.

"It creates more of an incentive for people to go into that type of employment as opposed to private firms," said Christopher Staine, who is starting his second year at the University of Oklahoma College of Law. He said he'll consider taking advantage of the program when he graduates.

The measure that creates the program, the John R. Justice Prosecutors and Defenders Act, is part of the Higher Education Opportunity Act signed into law Thursday.

Those taking advantage of the program would get $10,000 per year in debt repayment from the government, provided they stayed at least three years. The maximum pay-out would be $60,000.

"I think a lot of us in law school would like to be in public service, but when you look at all the loans you have to repay -- and hey, money's attractive to anybody," said Amanda Clark, second-year law student at OU.

She said law graduates are often forced to choose higher-paying jobs than public defenders or prosecutors, because they have to pay back so many loans.

Even with tuition wavers and scholarships, Clark will still graduate from OU's College of Law $80-100,000 in debt. The 31-year-old mother of two still has undergraduate loans to pay for on graduation. In addition, she, like all law students, had to sign a commitment that she would not work more than 15 hours a week during law school.

"I think most of us are getting out of law school with at least $60,000 (in debt)," she said.

The average debt for graduates of OU Law was $68,000 last year, said Stanley Evans, assistant dean of students at the University of Oklahoma College of Law.

"Among law schools, that is pretty low," he said. He said OU Law's policy is to be as affordable as possible and provide scholarships and tuition wavers to its students.

Many law students come to OU because they want to benefit their community and make a difference, Evans said.

"If they're so deeply in debt when they graduate, they have to give up that dream," he said. This law allows students to follow their dreams, he said.

Lauren Quick, third-year OU law student and president of OU's Student Bar Association, heard about the proposed law at the American Bar Association conference this summer. There was a lot of excitement about the proposed law at the time.

"It's going to affect the people who are really pro-public service but look at their debt and think" that's not feasible, Quick said.

At OU, many of the law students are from small towns. They want to go back to the towns where they fell in love with law in the first place, Quick said.

"It's very hard for them to return to their communities," she said. "They're stressing about their loans."

In addition to benefiting graduates with loans, this law will also benefit the court system, she said. Oklahoma court systems are really stressed right now, she said. Public defender and prosecutor numbers are low and that means case loads for each individual are high.

Staine agreed that this program is a win-win situation. It will enable more talented people to consider working in public service jobs. It will also help students out, Staine said.

"Overall, I'm excited that the federal government has taken steps to do something about student loans."

Julianna Parker 366-3541 jparker@normantranscript.com

        

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