Loan Assistance Repayment Program Update

Here’s some good news about our Loan Repayment Assistance Program from Hollis Kulwin, our senior assistant dean for student affairs:

Dear King Hall Community,

I'm delighted to announce that we are enhancing the King Hall Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP) to expand the financial assistance offered to King Hall graduates who perform law-related work for nonprofit organizations and state and federal agencies. The LRAP's salary cap will increase from $53,000 to $60,000, the time period for loan forgiveness will decrease from five years to one, and participants who earn less than $40,000 annually will have full repayment assistance with no personal contributions. These exciting changes should allow more students to participate in LRAP, remain in the program longer, and have more of their loans forgiven more quickly.

Founded in 1990, the King Hall LRAP was the first loan repayment assistance program established by any California public law school. The program is a critical part of the Law School's effort to support graduates who find it financially difficult to repay the student loans they needed to attend law school while working for the relatively low salaries typically offered by public interest organizations. Participants in King Hall's LRAP include lawyers who work or have worked at California Rural Legal Assistance, Legal Services of California, Office of Clients' Rights Advocacy, the Fair Housing Law Project, the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, the Sierra Club, and other public service organizations.

We hope the enhanced LRAP will encourage students to pursue their dreams of a public interest career.  Class of 2009 graduates can begin applying for the enhanced LRAP benefits in January, 2010 (when Class of 2009 loan repayment obligations begin). Program details with be forthcoming on the Law Financial Aid website.  Please feel free to contact the law school Financial Aid Office or Kirsten Hill, Associate Director of Career Services & Public Interest Career Planning, if you have any questions.

Best wishes,

Hollis Kulwin