The Statewide Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP), administered by the Pennsylvania Bar Foundation (PBF) and the Pennsylvania Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts Board (IOLTA), is ready for its third year of providing assistance to legal aid attorneys.

Qualifying legal aid attorneys have until October 15, 2012, to submit applications and accompanying certification letters for the next cycle of the statewide loan repayment assistance program (LRAP).

The LRAP is a direct outcome of the 2006 Report and Recommendation of the PBA Task Force on Student Loan Forgiveness and Repayment Assistance and is in its third year helping legal services lawyers across the state better manage their law school debt so they can continue to provide free legal assistance to Pennsylvania’s poor and disadvantaged. Qualifying legal aid attorneys have until Oct. 15, 2012, to submit applications and accompanying certification letters for the next cycle of the statewide loan repayment assistance program (LRAP).

The program provides for one-year loans, payable to qualified attorneys quarterly, with a 12-month employment requirement at an IOLTA-funded civil legal services organization. Providing a participating attorney remains in qualified employment and continues to meet the program’s other eligibility requirements, the attorney may apply for and receive up to 10 one-year loans over his/her tenure in qualified employment. The LRAP loans must be used to repay loans incurred for undergraduate and law school educational costs and are forgiven at the end of each year if the eligibility requirements have been met.

Funding for the statewide LRAP comes from an IOLTA Board grant to the PBF. That grant is funded by the fees charged to out-of-state lawyers who wish to make an appearance in a Pennsylvania court. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision to double the fee in 2010 allowed the PBF to expand the program to provide multiple tiers of assistance.

First-year program participants with annual net student loan debt service of $3,500 or more will be able to receive a maximum loan of $3,500; second-year participants with annual net student loan debt service of $4,500 or more will be able to receive a maximum loan of $4,500; and those who continue in the program for three or more years and have annual net student loan debt service of $6,000 or more will be able to receive a maximum loan of $6,000.

“In its first year the program awarded nearly $250,000 in loans to 75 attorneys employed at 15 different civil legal services organizations located across the state and covered approximately 52 percent of the recipients’ combined annual net debt service,” remarked PBF President Alfred Jones Jr. of Centre County. “In the second year the program awarded more than $300,000 in loans to 84 attorneys at 26 different organizations, covering 68 percent of their combined annual net debt service. We are
optimistic that this third loan cycle will give us an opportunity to reach an even larger pool of candidates.”

For more information about the LRAP, including additional eligibility requirements, visit the PBF website at www.pabarfoundation.org or call PBF Executive Director E. Marie Queen at 888-238-3036.