Release date: Oct. 6, 2003
Contact: Elaine Justice, Associate Director, University Media Relations,
at 404-727-0643 or ejustic@emory.edu

Emory Law School Receives $600,000 for Loan Repayment Program

Emory University School of Law has received a gift of $600,000 to fund a Georgia loan repayment assistance program (LRAP) for students. The donors have requested that their identity not be disclosed.

"The gift couldn't have come at a better time," says Thomas C. Arthur, dean of Emory Law School. "The money will be used to help graduates who select low-paying jobs with government or public interest organizations in Georgia to pay off their student loans. Without this assistance, they probably could not afford to devote themselves to public service. With it, they can afford to take these positions, to the benefit of us all."

Students often cite a large debt burden as the major factor keeping them from public interest work, according to Brenda Hill, associate director of financial aid for graduate and professional schools at Emory. Some students, who graduate with debts of $100,000 or more, say that automatically means their legal careers are driven by finances, not by choice.

The LRAP will provide assistance in the form of forgivable loans for students who pursue government service or public interest work. Typically, public interest starting salaries are $30,000 to $35,000 a year.

Emory students, faculty and staff believe that more students would enter public interest work if they could gain debt relief. Of 220 law students who responded to a survey, 68 percent said they would be interested in seeing a public interest concentration or certificate program; 89 percent said they would like to see a loan repayment assistance program; and 55 percent said, if it were not for law school debt, they would pursue government-related public interest work.

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