Application Period Opens Sept. 1 for Statewide Loan Repayment Assistance Program
The application period for the PA IOLTA Loan Repayment Assistance Programs will open on September 1, 2016. Lawyers employed by the IOLTA-funded civil legal services organizations providing free legal services to low-income Pennsylvanians have from September 1 through October 17 to apply for student loan repayment assistance from Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP), which is administered by the Pennsylvania Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts (PA IOLTA) Board and the Pennsylvania Bar Foundation.
The goal of the Loan Repayment Assistance Program is two-fold:
- Help attorneys employed at IOLTA-funded legal services organizations across the state better manage their undergraduate and law school student loan debt so they can afford to remain in public service; and
- Help IOLTA-funded legal aid organizations recruit and retain the best and the brightest attorneys for service in the public good.
Loan applicants must be licensed to practice law in Pennsylvania or be permitted to practice law under Bar Admission Rule 311, have a valid Pennsylvania Supreme Court-identification number, be in good standing and practice law as an employee of an IOLTA-funded organization.
At the time of application, the applicant’s total gross salary may not exceed $66,000; however if the attorney’s annual net debt service is greater than or equal to 10% of the attorney’s current annual gross salary he/she may apply regardless of the annual gross salary cap.
At the time of application, the amount of educational debt based on loans from commercial and government lending institutions, as well as university or other private institutional loans associated with law school and undergraduate educational debts must be greater than or equal to the amount of the LRAP grant. The attorney’s qualifying educational debt must be in satisfactory repayment.
The program provides one-year loans, payable to qualified attorneys quarterly, with a 12-month employment requirement at qualifying organizations.
Providing a participating attorney continues to meet the eligibility requirements, the attorney can apply for and receive up to ten, one-year loans over his/her tenure in qualified employment. The loans must be used to repay loans incurred for undergraduate and law school education costs and bar exam study and will be forgiven at the end of each year if eligibility requirements have been met.
The amount of loan repayment assistance provided is determined by the number of eligible applications and the amount of funding available. Since the LRAP's 2010 launch, more than $2 million of loan assistance has been awarded.