Loan forgiveness programs keep public interest lawyers on the job.

It has been said that an obstacle is something you see when you take your eyes off the goal. But, for law school students today, student loan debt can be difficult to overlook, especially for those entering the legal aid and public interest arenas.

The goal for lawyers in this area of law is obvious--to provide legal assistance and services to some of those who need it most--the poor and children. What is not so obvious, though, is that this passion to help the needy can cost young lawyers in excess of $80,000 in loans, while the average annual salary earned by lawyers in public interest work in 2002 was just $36,000, according to the ABA.

Cognizant of this growing problem, The Florida Bar Foundation and St. Thomas University School of Law have followed suit in what has become a catalyst campaign against the burdens of law school debt. In their efforts to help bear this burden, both have found early success with their respective Loan Repayment Assistance Programs.

In a recent report put out by the ABA, the culmination of a special two-year project, the ABA Commission on Loan Repayment and Forgiveness recognizes the problem and addresses prospective ways to alleviate it.

The report, "Lifting the Burden: Law Student Debt as a Barrier to Public Service," focuses largely on loan repayment assistance programs. A loan repayment assistance program (LRAP) provides financial aid to law school graduates, typically those working in the public interest or government sector. In most cases, this aid is given to graduates in the form of a new and forgivable loan to help them repay their annual educational debt.

According to the ABA's report, assuming a standard repayment schedule of 10 years, an $80,000 debt means payments of more than $1,000 per month. With median law school tuition steadily on the rise (up to $24, 920 in 2002, for private law schools, as opposed to just over $7,000 in 1985) 86.4 percent of law students borrowed an average of $77,300 in 1999-2000.

Ft. Lauderdale lawyer Bruce Lyons, liaison to the ABA's Criminal Justice Section, worked on the ABA's special commission. He said the panel "had to really stop and think to figure out what was going on" and how to address the problem. One thing the group found that seemed to work was the LRAP program.

The St. Thomas University School of Law began their LRAP program this past December/January and are in the second round of applications. John and June Mary Makdisi, former dean and professor...