Help public-interest attorneys afford to keep helping the poor
Glenn Berry is a housing attorney at CAMBA Legal Services, an organization that provides free civil legal assistance to low-income New Yorkers in Brooklyn and Staten Island. Berry fights for tenants facing eviction and landlord harassment, and he helps his clients remain in stable and affordable housing.
While Berry advocates for his clients in court, he faces his own challenge: the crippling weight of student loan payments. Berry, a New York Law School graduate with a daughter in college, pays hundreds of dollars each month towards loans, while also navigating a citywide affordability crisis and increased inflation.
Thousands of attorneys serving the public interest across the state are in a similar position since the pause on student loan payments lifted this past October. As these attorneys continue to struggle to manage the debt attached to their law degrees, exacerbating the widespread attrition at legal services organizations, those who also shoulder this crisis are low-income New Yorkers whose access to critical legal services is in jeopardy should more and more public sector attorneys leave for higher wages in the private sector.
Albany has an opportunity to help thwart this crisis by enacting legislation that would bolster the New York District Attorney and Indigent Legal Services Attorney Loan Forgiveness Program.
Under the current program, lawyers serving the public interest can receive up to $3,400 per year, and up to a total of $20,400 over six years, putting them well behind the award amounts allotted for registered nurses on teaching faculties and social workers, who perform vital work but carry, on average, less debt than public-interest lawyers. Most critically, the current program for attorneys has not been increased since 2009 despite dramatic spikes in the cost of living for New Yorkers.
Legislation sponsored by state Sen. Jessica Ramos and Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon would increase aid to up to $8,000 annually, for up to eight years, or total award eligibility of up to $64,000 in
total. Last year, the Senate included this legislation in their one-house budget, and the bill passed the full Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support in June with only one member voting in opposition.
The increase would make a real difference in the lives of attorneys like Berry, and all law school graduates, who owe an average of $160,000 in student loan debt, with students borrowing an average of $119,292 to attend, according to the Education Data Initiative.
Meanwhile, the median entry-level salary for civil legal services is $57,500, according to a 2022 survey by the National Association for Law Placement. The average pay for entry-level public defenders in 2022 was $59,700 and roughly $72,000 for prosecutors in New York City.
The disparity between the amount of law school debt and both public defender and civil legal service attorney salaries contributes to the widespread attrition among public defender and civil legal services organizations, with attorneys being forced to seek higher salaries in the private sector in order to pay their mounting bills.
Ultimately, it is the communities being served who suffer the most when experienced legal advocates are forced out. Skilled advocates should be available to all New Yorkers, not just those with wealth.
Gov. Kathy Hochul and the Legislature must support this legislation because it is critical not only for attorneys, but for the thousands of lowincome New Yorkers who rely on their critical legal services each year. New York cannot afford to lose additional public-sector attorneys, which would result in more and more case delays, overworked staff members, and fewer New Yorkers receiving fair, zealous representation in court.
Passing this measure into law will ease the burden of student loans for attorneys and promote equal access to justice for all New Yorkers.