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The Federal Income-Contingent Repayment Option For Law Student Loans, Philip G. Schrag

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Many idealistic law school graduates feel precluded from taking legal aid and other low-paying public service jobs because they have incurred high educational debt, often exceeding $100,000. In 1993, however, Congress created an "income-contingent" debt repayment option that was intended to enable high-debt, low-income graduates, including lawyers, to afford accepting public service positions. This program caps loan repayments at a reasonable percentage of the graduates' incomes, and it forgives any remaining balance at the end of twenty-five years. To date, this program has failed to meet the needs of public interest lawyers. It is rarely used. Law students are largely …