The State Bar of Texas has given $1.75 million to fill the coffers of a school loan-repayment program for legal-aid lawyers after the stagnant economy cut interest rates and decimated the traditional source of funding for the program. “We’re trying to help young or new lawyers who have significant student loans and help address the access-to-justice issues that exist in the state for so many of the poor,” says State Bar President Bob Black , who on Oct. 24 announced the contribution for the Student Loan Repayment Assistance Program. The $1.75 million came from a surplus in the Bar’s general fund, says Bar spokeswoman Kim Davey. The Texas Access to Justice Foundation (TAJF) administers the loan-repayment program, which in 2003 began helping lawyers repay their student loans as long as they work at qualified organizations providing legal services for the poor. “Legal-aid lawyers are passionate about their work, they are committed to their work, but like all other lawyers these days they are coming out with huge debt,” says TAJF Executive Director Betty Balli Torres . The loan-repayment program helps legal-aid groups retain lawyers because otherwise, financially, “it would be challenging for that person to remain in legal aid.” Balli Torres explains the average student-loan debt is $86,000, requiring a monthly payment of $676. But legal-aid lawyers, on average, make just $46,000 annually. The repayment program provides them up to $400 per month. Normally, the loan-repayment program uses money from Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts, but interest rates are so low that the TAJF must use what little money is left to fund legal-aid groups directly, Balli Torres says. The $1.75 million contribution is larger than what the Bar has given in the past, and it will fund the loan-repayment program through at least 2013, she says.
Locke Lord in London
Dallas-based Locke Lord is opening a London office with 11 solicitors during the first half of 2012 and is recruiting more solicitors for the new office, says firm chairwoman Jerry Clements of Austin. “I will tell you I want as many top-quality, top-tier solicitors in our UK office as we can hire,” she says. Clements won’t predict what size the office will be by the end of 2012 but says it “is being built out to accommodate significantly more than 11 solicitors.” The official office opening will likely occur during the first quarter of 2012, and she says that one or two U.S. lawyers (who she declines to name) will probably join the London office. She notes that Locke Lord lawyers have spent a lot of time in London. “This is a full-fledged official office in London and very exciting for us,” Clements says. The 650-lawyer firm has not yet named a partner in charge in London. “London is a significant global market for the legal industry in terms of financial institution clients, energy clients, real estate clients and corporate clients and we expect our practices and expertise to fit nicely with the global gateway that London provides to not only the UK but all parts of the world,” Clements says. Locke Lord clients have encouraged to firm to expand to London. “We know we’ve missed opportunities to do work for our existing U.S. clients in London by not having this presence and so we’re very confident that a number of our clients will be very happy that we’ve finally made this move so we will represent them more fully and more globally,” she says. Locke Lord opened a one-lawyer office in Hong Kong in January. Clements declines to identify other possible firm expansion efforts but says, “We are obviously looking to grow in places where our clients are doing business. We’re definitely in a growth mode, in a strategic way, to start going forward in other global markets.”
