Waives the biennial attorney registration fee for New York attorneys who are employed in a public service job

• Democratic1

◆ The sponsor's argument

Why Sam Sutton says this is needed

As the nation's student debt crisis has continued to balloon in recent years, law school graduates have been especially crippled by the cost of their education. In 2015, The New York Times reported that the average student loan debt carried by an American law school graduate was approx- imately $140,000. This is in stark contrast to the average student loan debt of $37,712 carried by students receiving an undergraduate degree in 2016. Recognizing that massive student loan debt brings a negative impact upon the nation's economy, often disenabling professionals from making 'big ticket' purchases for up to thirty years in their futures, the federal government implemented several reforms related to the repayment of student loan debt. These included the establishment of the income-based repayment programs, as well as the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLFP), now codified at 20 U.S.C. 1087e(m). Graduates who are employed full-time by government organizations and most 501(c)(3) nonprofit groups are eligible for participation in the PSLFP, which forgives the balance of a graduate's student loan debt after making ten years of payments on student loans, while employed by such an organiza- tion. The PSLFP seeks to incentivize students to work in government and/or non-profit positions where employers typically cannot afford the salaries that can be earned in the private sector. Building upon this theme, this legislation seeks to waive the biennial attorney registration fee for New York attorneys who are employed in a public service job as defined by the PSLFP. This fee, currently pegged at $375 every two years, comes in addition to costly aspects of main- taining one's bar license; including fees associated with mandatory continued legal education and an attorney's admission to practice before federal courts. As the State of New York and other organizations neces- sarily seek out the best and brightest attorneys to work on behalf of the People, this legislation takes an important step toward incentiviz- ing lawyers to accept positions in public service.

This is the sponsor's own case for the bill, quoted from their memorandum. It is not Agora's description of what the bill does.