The American Bar Association is lobbying the Obama administration and Congress to extend relief to recent law school graduates who went into debt to finance their legal educations but have not been able to find a job because of the recession. The ABA wants the government to let unemployed graduates convert private loans into federal ones. The change could allow them to defer repaying those loans for as long as three years. The effort is in its early stages. “This is really intended to give them some breathing room,” said ABA President Carolyn Lamm.
The plan was proposed by the ABA’s recently formed Commission on the Impact of the Economic Crisis on the Profession and Legal Needs, which is examining how lawyers can confront the recession. Debt is a huge issue for many law school graduates, particularly given the difficult legal job market. The average public law school graduate borrows $59,324 for law school, according to the ABA. That figure is $91,506 for graduates of private law schools. Many law students take out a combination of federal and private loans.
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