Loan Repayment Assistance Program
Washington University School of Law initiated a Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP) in January 2002. The purpose of this program is to enable an increased number of our graduates to pursue government or public service careers during a time when rising student debt loads have made this increasingly difficult.
In 1974 Harvard Law School initiated the first program of this type. Today more than 50 United States law schools and 13 states have LRAP programs. The programs vary widely in terms of eligibility, total amounts expended, number of recipients, and other programmatic details. The most recent readily available data are provided by Equal Justice Works (formerly the National Association of Public Interest Lawyers) in its 2004 report, Financing the Future.
The adopted detailed plan is reprinted on our Web site.
As adopted, our LRAP program will be a defined contribution plan with the School of Law's liability in any given year not greater than a specified allocation of law school funds to the LRAP. If the School's defined contribution for a given year is less than total qualifying requests, the actual disbursements to participants will be reduced on a pro rata basis.
Within these parameters, the School of Law, for example, will pay up to 100 percent loan forgiveness for adjusted gross income below $25,000; 50 percent forgiveness at $40,000; and 26 percent forgiveness at $48,000.
There are four eligibility requirements for students to participate in our LRAP program:
1. Minimum Loan Amount: Eligible students must have minimum outstanding institutional undergraduate and law school loans of $20,000 when they first apply for loan repayment assistance. LRAP funds, however, will only be available for loans secured during law school.
2. Eligible Employment: Eligible students must be engaged in full time federal, state, or local government employment or in full time public service that is law related. For this purpose, a public service organization must also qualify for tax exempt status under §501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
Judicial clerkships will not, at least initially, constitute eligible employment. As with all nonqualifying employment, participants who complete judicial clerkships and then obtain eligible employment may participate in the program following their judicial clerkship.
3. Income Limitations: Eligible students must have adjusted gross income of less than $55,000. Applicants should consult our website to fully understand how this is calculated.
4. Other LRAP Programs: Eligible students will also be required to maximize their participation in all other LRAP programs for which they are eligible through good faith efforts to investigate such programs. An eligible student's Washington University School of Law LRAP award will be reduced dollar for dollar by any LRAP award that a graduate receives from another source such as an employer or state program.
Application materials may be obtained from Elizabeth Walsh, Director of Student Services (e-mail address: eapatton@wulaw.wustl.edu).