Legal Business as Usual with UST's Jerry Organ - Impact of Law School Debt
Business as Usual is MSBA's
bi-weekly legal news webcast. We log in early - 7:30 am! We
spend the first 30 minutes chatting about what we're reading in
the legal news before starting our 'formal' interview at the top
of the hour.
The ABA's Young Lawyers Division just
released selected findings from its Student Loan Survey. Here are a
few:
- Most young lawyers who borrowed for their education report their debt has
caused them to delay or forego pursuit of traditional life milestones that
were commonplace in the past, such as purchasing a home, marriage, and
starting a family.
- Black borrowers reported higher J.D. debt balances than any other
racial/
ethnic group and were most likely to report their current debt
balance is higher now than at graduation.
- More than half of respondents reported feeling financially insecure,
either some or all the time.
We'll discuss these findings and other reports with a
nationally-recognized expert in law school affordability, Jerry
Organ, of the University of St. Thomas. Having served for four years as
Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Organ has recently taken on responsibilities
as the Co-director of the Holloran Center for Ethical Leadership in the
Professions. His current research is directed toward transparency in financial
aspects of the decision to attend law school – addressing both scholarship programs for students
and employment and salary data of graduates. In addition, he is working on
obtaining funding for a survey of law students to assess the
extent to which alcohol consumption, drug use and mental health issues are
prevalent among law students. He also is working with the
Holloran Center on developing assessment tools to document the development of
professional identity among law students.
Our co-hosts are Landon Ascheman, Jess Birken, Rep. Athena
Hollins, and Mike Carlson.
Program Manager: Mike Carlson,
mcarlson@mnbars.org | 612-278-6336