American Bar Association in Chicago. (Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM)
|

The American Bar Association and the U.S. Department of Education are headed to federal court Wednesday to wrangle over eligibility for the department's popular Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

The ABA has asked Judge Timothy Kelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to issue a preliminary injunction stating that its employees qualify for loan forgiveness—a claim the department refutes. The department has countered that ABA employees aren't eligible for the program because the ABA is not primarily a public service organization, even if certain ABA projects perform public service functions.

At the core of the issue is the ABA's South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project, known as ProBAR, which provides detained immigrants in Southern Texas with free legal counsel. The ABA claims that recruiting and retaining attorneys for the project has become extremely difficult since the department determined in 2016 that those lawyers are not eligible to have their federal loans forgiven after 10 years, as employees of qualifying public service organizations can.