<p>
[QUOTE]
Mind how you handle your student loans aspiring lawyers, or you could find your debt hurting more than your bank accounts. Loans could derail your career before it can start.</p>
<p>That is the message in a decision by a panel of five New York judges denying one would-be lawyer, Robert Bowman, admission to the bar because his debt approached half a million dollars. </p>
<p>“His application demonstrates a course of action amounting to neglect of financial responsibilities with respect to the student loans he has accumulated since 1983,” the judges wrote in a decision issued late last week. They went on to criticize his “dealing with the lenders.”</p>
<p>The decision, which comes as students borrow ever larger sums to cover the cost of higher education, blocked Mr. Bowman’s effort to have his bar application reconsidered after it was initially denied earlier this year. His long struggle to enter the legal profession was the subject of an article in The New York Times in July. </p>
<p>Without practicing law, Mr. Bowman said it would be difficult to earn enough to repay his debts which, because of fees, penalties and interest, were growing by about $10,000 monthly.</p>
<p>“This has destroyed my life,” Mr. Bowman said. “Everything I’ve worked for, every effort, every fight that I’ve taken to make this progress, has been for nothing.” He has appealed to New York’s highest court.
<p>There is simply no excuse for accumulating $500k in student loan debt and it’s perfectly legitimate to use such information to question the competence and character of an applicant to the bar. Clearly the appellate panel agreed.</p>
<p>That’s pretty scary. I think my debt amount will end up being around half his, if it’s 400k as it says in the original article, but all but 37k will be eligible for loan forgiveness. Hopefully it’ll turn out to be significantly less than that but that’s assuming I never earn another scholarship or award in my life. </p>
<p>However, in the original article that came before this one it notes that he has not made a single monthly payment in his 26 year loan history, and that he’s taken out like 18 different student loans. So it’s not just the debt itself. So I would think this is different than any run of the mill student who takes on way too much debt.</p>
<p>"His application demonstrates a course
of action amounting to neglect of financial responsibilities with
respect to the student loans he has accumulated since 1983.
According to applicant, his Sallie Mae federal and private loans
alone now total approximately $480,000, including interest. His
recalcitrance in dealing with the lenders has been and continues
to be incompatible with a lawyer’s duties and responsibilities as
a member of the bar (see e.g. Matter of Anonymous, 78 NY2d 227,
232 [1991]; see also ABA Code of Recommended Standards for Bar
Examiners, Standards 7, 12, 13). "</p>
<p>Lawyers earn their living by gaming the system. This guys sin was that he attempted to game the system BEFORE getting his button. Yes, bad publicity for the legal profession but also an opportunity. The guild will occasionally make a big deal of sacrificing one of their own in order to keep up self-serving appearance.</p>
<p>You kind of have to wonder what his ‘plan’ was. Most student loans never go away until you pay them off in full… even if you go bankrupt the student loans generally can’t be dismissed and will still keep racking up interest.</p>
<p>If he owed $10k a month in payments I don’t see how he could manage that as a new lawyer fresh out of law school trying to live and practice in New York. Just exactly how much was he expecting to earn fresh out of law school!?!?</p>
<p>I think he is planning on either finding one reason or another to defer repayment on his loans (hardship–can’t get a license to practice law) or he plans to win the lottery or he plans to hold on till he dies.</p>
<p>The original article is quite informative. He seems to have been raised in foster care and have had two serious accidents. I realize this is unsecured debt but would they still deny him if he was under water on his mortgage to the tune of $400K?</p>
<p>I think the reference to not working with lenders might be more telling than the amount of the debt itself. </p>
<p>If a person engages in conduct that could be viewed as bad faith, such as moving without giving lenders a forwarding address or lying to them about status, then the conduct itself could support a finding that the applicant lacks the requisite character for bar admission. There’s always more to every story…and we aren’t getting the full other side of this one.</p>
<p>MidwestMom, a lawyer-to-be has to account for every single run in with the law, including such “minor” stuff as traffic tickets. So my advice to kids thinking about law school - keep good records of all of your traffic infractions.</p>
<p>This guy has dodged his student loans for 25 years, not making even ONE payment. AMAZING!</p>
<p>As a lawyer, this man would be dealing with other people’s money in deposited in his trust accounts. I suppose that the committee was concerned that he might be the kind of person who might make lots of excuses why he couldn’t give his clients the money which was rightfully theirs.</p>