Law School Loan Repayment Assistance Programs

Law School Expert Blog


Today’s post is written by Rebecca Sivitz, graduate of Penn Law School and former proofreader for Law School Expert.


With the current status of the economy and legal hiring market, many applicants are, rightfully, sensitive to the enormous cost of law school tuition. This is obviously even more of an issue for those interested in public interest work, where the paycheck can be less than 1/3 of a biglaw salary. LRAP programs are a great option for people interested in public interest law. If you aren’t familiar, Loan Repayment Assistance Programs (LRAP), forgive some (or all!) law school debt and/or can offer lower loan payments for public interest lawyers. I’ve compiled a list of the most helpful sites I could find on LRAP that can hopefully serve as a great resource.

General LRAP Info

For basic info about what an LRAP is and who might qualify, as well as private (non-school) funding sources, check out: http://www.finaid.org/loans/forgiveness.phtml

The ABA also has a nice background on LRAP: http://www.americanbar.org/groups/legal_aid_indigent_defendants/initiatives/loan_repayment_assistance_programs.html

The Equal Justice Works website is a fantastic resource (there is more information on the than this page but it is somewhat hidden so search for LRAP in the site’s search bar): http://www.equaljusticeworks.org/ed-debt/students/loan-repayment-assistance-programs

For Virginia Lawyers: http://www.vsb.org/docs/valawyermagazine/jj01loan.pdf


District of Columbia Bar Foundation: http://www.dcbarfoundation.org/component/content/category/46-lrapfaqs

Individual Law School LRAP Programs (not an all inclusive, but a good start)

This list is fantastic and a great starting point: http://www.equaljusticeworks.org/resources/student-debt-relief/law-school-lraps/list-law-school-lraps

Top Law LRAP

NYU

Stanford Law School (LRAP program actually includes a calculator on its site to figure out what your payments would be)

Yale Law School

Berkeley

University of Chicago

University of Michigan

U. Penn

Northwestern

Georgetown

Harvard  (Harvard also published this tilted but interesting view of comparing LRAP)

UVA

Columbia

Duke

Cornell

LRAP at Other Great Schools

Fordham

Colorado

Washington University School of Law

UGA

UNC Law

Wake Forest

Iowa

UC Davis

Maine

Notre Dame

Brooklyn Law Center

Seattle U

Lewis and Clark

Ohio State

Great LRAP Options for those with lower LSAT scores

Roger Williams

Creighton

Seton Hall

William Mitchell (participates in Minnesota LRAP)

Rutgers

Suffolk

Penn State Dickenson

Hofstra  (see pages 13 and 14)

Vermont

2 Responses

  1. This post is AWESOME, thank you so very much. I have some specific questions for certain schools & always prefer not to sound like an idiot… do people pronounce this “L-RAP” or “L-R-A-P” in conversation?

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