The 2019 Application Loan Cycle for the Legal Services Corporation's Herbert S. Garten Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP) opens on Friday, February 01, 2019. The deadline for application submissions is Thursday, February 28, 2019 at 5:00 PM Eastern Time. 

Beginning in 2005, the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) has made forgivable loans to attorneys employed by LSC-funded legal services programs to help them repay their law school debt under the Herbert S. Garten Loan Repayment Assistance Program. The program was designed to help LSC grantees recruit and retain qualified attorney staff. 

Attorneys who are selected to participate in the loan repayment assistance program receive loans of up to $5,600 per year for up to three years if they remain eligible for the program and if funding is available. For each annual term, the loan payment may be forgiven as long as the participating attorney remains employed for the full annual cycle at the employing LSC grantee and otherwise remains eligible. 

Using a lottery system, LSC will select approximately 80 eligible attorneys (the actual number of loans made each year depends on available funding) to participate. Each loan recipient will receive an LRAP loan, which must be used to pay qualifying law school
loans and accrued interest. If the recipient stays employed in good standing with the same LSC grantee through the required twelve months, as certified by the executive director of that grantee, then LSC will forgive the loan.

If the loan recipient stops working at that grantee during those twelve months, then the entire loan must be paid back to LSC, unless LSC determines the PA had good cause. To participate in the LRAP for a second and third year, the loan recipient must submit information demonstrating continued employment with the same LSC grantee and other eligibility requirements. If otherwise eligible, a recipient may participate in the second and third years even if the recipient's
salary and/or net worth exceed the LRAP initial eligibility requirements. 

All loans are contingent upon funds being available and participants  must agree to participate in any evaluation of the LRAP program, which may include the completion of surveys and participation in interviews. 

For more information and to apply for the program please visit https://www.lsc.gov/grants-grantee-resources/our-grant-programs/loan-repayment-assistance-program.