August 2005

The Student Loan Repayment Assistance Program Is Coming!

Guest Column from the Washington State Bar Foundation LRAP Advisory Committee

With great enthusiasm and excitement, we announce the arrival of the Washington State Bar Foundation's Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP). Thanks to generous donations from three WSBA sections (Administrative Law, Family Law, and Labor and Employment Law) and an affiliation relationship with Sallie Mae, which will offer loan consolidation services to WSBA members, the LRAP will begin accepting applications as early as this fall.

Nearly six years in the making, the Foundation LRAP comes after the culmination of many years of hard work by countless people across the state, first trying to establish a program through the Washington State Legislature for four years, and then through the tireless work of the WSBA's Loan Crisis Task Force for over two years. The resulting program from all these efforts can be viewed at www.wsba.org/lawyers/lrap.htm.

In the first year, the LRAP will be able to accept five participants funded at $5,000 each per year for five years. The hope is to add five additional participants each year after that.

The program is structured to provide financial assistance to program participants, to be used to repay educational debt. Assistance will be in the form of forgivable loans. Forgiveness of LRAP loans begins after three years in qualifying employment. Loans are not forgiven in full until completion of five years of qualifying employment. Recipients who do not complete the full five years of required public service must pay back their LRAP loans consistent with the program guidelines.

Program participants must be active WSBA members employed at least 32 hours per week in qualifying public-service employment. Qualifying public-service employment includes:

•  Legal services offices
•  Public defenders
•  County prosecutors
•  State and local government employers
•  Tribes
•  Private nonprofit organizations providing direct legal representation of individuals

The LRAP is overseen by the Foundation's LRAP Advisory Committee, which has been finalizing the program details over the summer. Ten organizations offer nominations for appointment to the Committee, and the current members and their appointing agencies are:

Dwight Williams, Chair, Washington State Bar Association
Ishbel Dickens, Access to Justice Board
Lael Echo-Hawk, Association of Washington Tribes
Adam Grupp (law student), University of Washington School of Law
Arlo Hammontree, University of Washington School of Law
Susan Hoffman, Washington State Bar Association  
Julia Kellison, Civil Legal Service Provider Leadership Conference Group
Kathleen Koch, Seattle University Law School
Micah LeBank (law student), Gonzaga University Law School
Christen Peters, Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys 
Joseph Shorin III, Office of the Attorney General  
Quita St. John (law student), Seattle University Law School
Larry Weiser, Gonzaga University Law School 
Todd Wyatt, Washington Young Lawyers Division
Sarah Yatsko, Washington Defender Association

As law students face ever-increasing debt burdens upon graduation, the Foundation LRAP will provide some relief for those planning to pursue a career in the traditionally lower-paid public-service sector.

Please check the WSBA website (www.wsba.org/lrap.htm) for details on application deadlines and to download the necessary forms to apply. If you are interested in donating to the Foundation LRAP, please contact Paula Littlewood, WSBA deputy director, at paulal@wsba.org or 206-239-2120.