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Saturday, January 20, 2007
Law - "Lawyers Balance Public Service, School Loans"
NPR has a piece on Morning Edition yesterday about how the high cost of repaying student loans is making it difficult for young lawyers to become prosecutors or public defenders. The story has now been transcribed so that you now have the choice of listening to it, or reading it. It begins:
The cost of law school continues to be a burden for many public defenders and prosecutors. Some reluctantly leave public service for the private sector in order to pay back their loans.Perla Tirado loves being a public defender. She earned her law degree at DePaul University and passed the bar exam a year and a half ago. Now she defends those accused of domestic violence crimes who can't afford a lawyer.
Tirado does it for $52,000 a year, which is dwarfed by the size of her student loans. They total about $150,000. Tirado, 31, figures she'll be close to retirement when she's done paying off the loans.
And things aren't any better for prosecutors. Julian Brevard, who works in the child protection division of the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, has debts totaling about $90,000. He started two years ago after earning his law degree at Catholic University in Washington, D.C.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 20, 2007 09:05 AM
Posted to General Law Related