Ensuring an Inclusive Legal Profession Through State-Supported Student Loan Programs

SUMMARY

President Muhammad U. Faridi, along with the Council on the Profession (Mary Lu Bilek and Christopher Wilds, Co-Chairs), wrote to Governor Kathy Hochul to urge State action to address the Federal government’s gutting of critical student loan programs. The letter notes that other states, including Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, have adopted state-supported student loan programs to ensure that wealth does not determine who may enter the legal profession or who can access justice. “With thoughtful design, New York can do the same. An initial public investment can be paired with a structure that becomes self-sustaining over time, yielding returns far beyond loan repayment: preserving social mobility, merit, and equal access to justice.”

REPORT

The Honorable Kathy Hochul
Governor of New York State
NYS Capitol Building
Albany, NY 12224

Re: The Need for State-Supported Student Loan Programs to Protect Access to the Legal Profession in New York

Dear Governor Hochul:

On behalf of the New York City Bar Association and its Council on the Profession, we write to urge State action to address the Federal government’s gutting of critical student loan programs.  At a moment when the rule of law and democratic values are under daily assault, insuring the future of the legal profession and the addition of new lawyers well-prepared to serve their clients and the justice system is imperative. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) directly undermines that imperative by erecting an admissions barrier unrelated to merit that excludes first-generation and low-income students and weakens the future legal profession.

For twenty years, prospective law students have been able to count on the federal Grad PLUS loan program to enable borrowing up to the full cost of attendance (which includes not only tuition, but books, fees, health care, and living expenses) to finance their legal education and on the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program to enable them to repay their loans while working in public service jobs.

By eliminating both the Grad PLUS program and restructuring PSLF, the OBBBA in one fell swoop creates a new wealth-based threshold for our profession and will almost certainly widen the justice gap. Our democratic values require elimination of irrelevant criterion that obstruct entry into the profession that stewards our justice system, the integrity of which demands that we provide representation and access to more, not fewer, New York citizens.

New York can and must respond. Other states, including Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, have adopted state-supported student loan programs to ensure that wealth does not determine who may enter the legal profession or who can access justice.[1] With thoughtful design, New York can do the same. An initial public investment can be paired with a structure that becomes self-sustaining over time, yielding returns far beyond loan repayment: preserving social mobility, merit, and equal access to justice.

New York must act now, before the OBBBA’s effect begins to deny access to the profession based on wealth and further widens the justice gap.  We must find a meaningful state solution in time to build it into the 2027 budget.  We urge you to take the steps necessary to develop a viable proposal for a state solution in time for consideration in the 2027 budget.

We appreciate your consideration of this request and would welcome the opportunity to work with your Administration to address this critical issue for the legal profession.

Respectfully,

Muhammad U. Faridi, President
New York City Bar President

Mary Lu Bilek, Co-Chair
Council on the Profession

Christopher Wilds, Co-Chair
Council on the Profession