King Hall Loan Repayment Assistance Program Set to Expand
The King Hall Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP) is being amended to expand the financial assistance offered by UC Davis School of Law for graduates who perform law-related work for nonprofit organizations and state and federal agencies. Hollis Kulwin, King Hall's senior assistant dean for student affairs, announced this week that LRAP will raise the salary cap for participants from $53,000 to $60,000, lessen the time period they must work before loans can be forgiven from five years to one, and allow participants who earn less than $40,000 annually to have full repayment assistance with no personal contributions.
Founded in 1990, LRAP was the first loan repayment assistance program established by any California public law school. The program is a critical part of the Law School's effort to support graduates who find it financially difficult to repay the student loans they needed to attend law school while working for the relatively low salaries typically offered by public interest organizations. Participants in UC Davis' LRAP include lawyers who work or have worked at California Rural Legal Assistance, Legal Services of California, Office of Clients' Rights Advocacy, the Fair Housing Law Project, the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, the Sierra Club, and other public service organizations.
Recent enhancements to the program should make it more inclusive and more effective than ever, said Kulwin. "These enhancements will allow more students to participate in LRAP, and allow participants to remain in the program longer and have more of their loans forgiven more quickly. We hope the enhanced LRAP will encourage students to pursue their dreams of a public interest career."