Queens pol’s bill to expand atty loan forgiveness program passed by Senate
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State Senator Jessica Ramos, whose bill to expand the District Attorney and Indigent Legal Services Attorney Loan Forgiveness program was passed by the State Senate this week. AP file photo by Hans Pennink
By Jacob Kaye
Both houses of the legislature took major steps this week toward approving legislation from a Queens lawmaker that would increase the amount of student loan forgiveness public interest attorneys who are saddled with debt from law school could receive from the state.
On Monday, the State Senate passed a bill from Queens State Senator Jessica Ramos that would expand the District Attorney and Indigent Legal Services Attorney Loan Forgiveness program, which hasn’t been adjusted since its creation nearly two decades ago.
Also on Monday, the State Assembly included in its budget response to Governor Kathy Hochul’s executive budget the funding to support the expansion of the DALF program
With the bill approaching the finish line, a group of nearly a dozen district attorneys and nearly two dozen public defender organizations sent a joint letter of support of the legislation to Hochul, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heasite.
In the letter, whose signatories include Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz, Kings County District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, Queens Defenders and the Legal Aid Society, the groups urged for the state to include the $4 million needed to cover the program’s expansion as detailed in Ramos’ bill.
“Student loan cancellation and assistance remains a hugely popular and crucial policy plank both locally and nationally,” the letter reads. “By endorsing this loan assistance bill you will remove the barriers to building wealth and a secure future here in our state for attorneys working on behalf of New Yorkers.”
“This issue crosses the aisle of the adversarial system, as evidenced by our organizational support shown here, and within the two party system as evidenced by the support in the legislative body,” the letter continued. “We urge you to include this modest funding and crucial legislative framework in the FY25 final budget and ensure that some measure of debt relief is on the horizon for attorneys working for our organizations and on behalf of the state – and the people – of New York.”
The groups claim that the DALF program, two decades after its creation, no longer provides adequate relief to attorneys working in public interest jobs, including those who work at public defense firms or in district attorneys’ offices – which, on average, pay less than private law firms.
As a result, the program has contributed to an attrition crisis currently affecting public defense firms and district attorneys’ offices in New York. They say it's also made it difficult for attorneys to pay for other necessities, and, ultimately, has affected low income New Yorkers in need of public defense attorneys.
Currently, the DALF program, which was created in 2009, is capped at $3,400 per year with six years of eligibility per law school graduate. In total, graduates can be rewarded as high as $20,400 in debt forgiveness.
However, attorneys are currently graduating with around $130,000 in debt, according to advocates.
Under Ramos’ proposed expansion, graduates would be able to receive loan forgiveness for up to eight years.
Additionally, the amount received each year would jump from $3,4000 to $8,000 per year, increasing the total award to $64,000.
“It’s rare that the district attorneys and the public defenders are on the same side of a bill, but it speaks to the need for the DALF program to be expanded,” Ramos said in a statement to the Eagle. “Law students are graduating with an average of $130,000 in debt, and that burden in combination with high caseloads and high cost of living is putting a huge strain on our state’s ability to ensure everyone gets the competent representation they are entitled to.”
“I’m thrilled that we were able to pass this bill again in the Senate and that my partner in the Assembly was able to champion the funding in their one house,” she added. “I’m looking forward to getting this over the finish line.”
Though the bill was passed by the State Senate in a near-unanimous vote last year, it stalled in the Assembly.
Advocates say its passage in 2024 is even more crucial.
A federal pause on student loan repayments put in place at the start of the pandemic expired in October 2023, and for the past several months, a number of public interest attorneys have been dealing with the new expense in their personal budgets, advocates say.
By making the reforms to DALF, attorneys say that it will be easier for them to make it to their tenth full year of public interest service, at which point they’ll become eligible for federal student loan cancellation.
Without it, the attorneys say their offices will be trapped in a self-perpetuating cycle of attrition that ultimately limits New Yorkers’ ability to receive access to a public defender able to adequately defend them in court.
“It is a well known fact that our offices have been suffering from high rates of attrition in recent
years,” the letter issued Tuesday reads. “Low salaries and high law school debt burdens mean that too often, it is impossible for attorneys to remain in these vital roles that serve fellow New Yorkers. When attorneys turn to private sector jobs after being trained and gaining the skills to excel in these vital jobs, New Yorkers in need of their services are left behind as offices deal with larger caseloads and fewer experienced attorneys able to handle more complex cases.”
“This also means that cases grind to a halt as new attorneys or prosecutors are assigned, creating backlog and delay in our legal systems,” they added.
The high rates of attrition have hit both DA’s offices and public defense firms and the DALF expansion legislation has resulted in a rare moment of unity between the two sides of the criminal justice system.
“Our dedicated prosecutors and public defense colleagues often begin their careers with crushing student debt, and New York’s high cost of living makes it hard to get by on government and non-profit salaries,” Gonzalez, the Brooklyn district attorney, said in a statement. “This funding will provide much-needed relief to the attorneys we rely upon to seek justice, promote fairness, defend the rights of the accused, and to support victims. It will also help retain the talented and ethical attorneys we need to do this challenging work that is so vital to our legal system.”
“I encourage the legislature and Governor Hochul to support this important legislation,” he added.
A similar sentiment was echoed by Lori Zeno, the executive director of the Queens Defenders.
“Underinvestment in the District Attorney and Indigent Legal Services Loan Forgiveness program is an underinvestment in our city’s public defenders, who are tasked with protecting the rights of the most vulnerable members of our community from a legal system that criminalizes poverty, mental illness, and rampant and increasing inequity,” Zeno said. “It is no secret that public defenders forgo higher salaries and benefits in the private sector in their commitment to a public service career. Increasing the DALF award cap for public defenders will help address the attrition crisis being experienced by legal services organizations in New York and show our public defenders that they are vital – and valued – members of our legal system.”
The state’s budget is due on April 1.
