The right to an attorney means writing to Gov. Kathy Hochul for proponents of expanding District Attorney and Indigent Legal Service Attorney Loan Forgiveness Program (DALF): On on Dec. 3, 37 district attorneys, along with public defense organizations and their unions, penned a letter to Albany asking for $4 million in the next fiscal budget toward expanding the loan forgiveness program. Four New York City district attorneys were among those who signed the letter: Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg, Bronx D.A. Darcel Clark, Queens D.A. Melinda Katz, and Staten Island D.A. Michael McMahon.
Law school debt remains a major hurdle for retaining both public defenders and prosecutors in today’s legal workforce. The letter piggybacks on existing state legislation, which proposes increasing the maximum money forgiven from $3,400 to $8,000 for more than eight years instead of the current six. In total, the bill could cover up to $64,000 in student debt for public sector attorneys. Currently, DALF can only spot $20,400 at most.
Out of the pandemic came an exodus of public defenders and assistant district attorneys due to the high cost of living and lower-than-industry-average wages. Replacing those departing public sector lawyers is an issue for the same reasons.
“One of the biggest challenges I think all public defenders face, but [particularly] if you’re talking about impacting Harlem, is [recruiting] the best candidates to support our clients,” said Piyali Basak, managing director at Neighborhood Defender Services (NDS) of Harlem. “As costs throughout the city are rising, as a law school becomes more expensive, it just becomes harder to both recruit and to get people to stay.
“It’s so important for our clients to have continuity of representation, and it’s devastating when clients develop a relationship with the attorneys and then attorneys just can’t stay, because it’s just so cost-prohibitive to stay in public defense. These public interest loan forgiveness programs make it more manageable to be doing this work.”
An attrition crisis among public defense organizations and district attorney offices directly affects those navigating the criminal justice system, particularly those who rely on public defenders because they cannot afford a lawyer. When a public defender leaves, they pass on their cases to a colleague who needs time to get up to speed.
Ultimately, these handoffs mean potential adjournments, delaying the court process and potentially dragging on cases far longer than needed. Basak said she does not blame those departing public defense and maintains that everyone leaves behind a backlog. She pointed to ACS cases for an example of how devastating attrition can be.
“This involves parents who are losing their kids to the foster care system, and when people [are] leaving, these hearings are getting delayed and that is preventing families from reunifying,” aid Basak said. “There’s a real, direct, tangible impact to families, and we’re talking about Harlem families who are being impacted by the turnaround.”
Jane Fox, chapter chair of the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys – UAW Local 2325, who helped craft the legislation, said the combination of student loan payments, high cost of living, and low wages hits the hardest when public defenders reach mid-career, particularly when they begin a family. She said law school debt is usually their second- or third-highest monthly expense.
“From the union’s perspective, I could bargain a great contract and win a huge salary increase for my members, but if almost 100% of my members have this huge student loan bill every month, how much does the salary increase get them?” said Fox. “They don’t actually keep any of the wealth because they’ve just sent it off to the student loan servicer.
“This is also about making sure salaries go farther, that people can [have] that money to do the things they need to like saving for retirement, to purchase a home, for child care, or … to care for an elderly parent.”
On average, lawyers graduate with $130,000 in student debt, but public service attorneys receive less loan assistance from the Higher Education Services Corporation (which handles DALF) than nurses and social workers. Fox said when crafting the bill, she found that 90% of union members could cover all of their student debt if DALF covered up to $8,000 a year.
Last year, “New York Magazine”/”Intelligencer” reported on how a Legal Aid Society public defender worked two other jobs, including as a delivery app driver. Fox said while such side hustles are a rare last resort, burnout and economic anxiety are common in the profession.
Both Fox and Basak believe this is a racial justice issue, pointing to the legion of Black and Brown law students becoming first-generation attorneys in the public sector.
“There are so many folks who [are] talented, intelligent, incredible advocates[and] live in our communities, who maybe have experience with a family member being involved in the court system or struggling with mental illness, or know somebody who was caught up in immigration or the system — and they’re inspired by that and think ‘I want to stand up to these injustices,’” said Fox. “We want to encourage that. Finding a way to relieve that financial pressure is actually the way that we ensure that attorneys of color and people who come from working class communities, where they may be the first generation in their family to go to college or law school, get to actually take these kinds of careers.”
The impact is not only on defense. Similarly, when a prosecutor’s office loses lawyers, cases end up being delayed by pushing back trials, discovery and plea deals, said Basak. While public defenders and district attorney offices remain courtroom foils, they see the DALF expansion as imperative.
“Loan forgiveness is critical to relieving the crippling student loan debt driving record-high rates of attrition for public sector attorneys across New York State,” said Bragg in an email statement. “To avoid creating new case backlogs and legal delays, as well as to attract the best and brightest candidates, we stand with public interest attorneys and ask the (state) Legislature to bolster the DALF Program.”
The actual bill — A.1568D/S.4511C — sponsored by State Senator Jessica Ramos and Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon, awaits to become law despite overwhelmingly passing the Assembly’s one-house budget and the State Senate multiple times while facing seemingly little pushback from Hochul, according to sources close to the issue.
Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member who writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.