The DC Bar Foundation is now accepting midyear applications for its DC Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP) from civil legal services lawyers who reside in DC and work for eligible employers that serve low-income, underrepresented DC residents. The application deadline is 5:00 p.m., May 2, 2014, and the DC LRAP awards will be made in July 2014.
“The DC LRAP makes it possible for legal services providers located in the District of Columbia to recruit and retain talented, dedicated public interest lawyers living and working in the city,” said Imoni M. Washington, Director of Programs of the DC Bar Foundation. Through the program, attorneys who qualify receive an interest-free loan from the Bar Foundation to pay their monthly law school student loan payments. These interest-free loans from the Bar Foundation are forgiven are at the end of the year in exchange for the legal services that these attorneys have provided on behalf of low-income DC residents.
This is the eighth year the Council of the District of Columbia has appropriated funding for educational loan repayment assistance to lawyers who live and work in the District of Columbia and are employed in areas of civil legal practice that serve low-income DC residents. At the direction of the Council, and pursuant to a grant agreement with the District of Columbia’s Office of Victim Services, the DC Bar Foundation lends its expertise to the District by identifying, awarding, and monitoring the DC Poverty Lawyer Loan Repayment Assistance Program. The DC Bar Foundation also runs a second loan repayment program for attorneys who work in the District and live in Maryland or Virginia. For both of its loan repayment assistance programs, the Bar Foundation leverages additional resources through the pro bono services of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP. A team of volunteer paralegals and lawyers at the law firm provides stellar support to both loan repayment assistance programs.
The midyear DC LRAP application is available on the DC Bar Foundation’s website at www.dcbarfoundation.org.
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The District of Columbia Bar Foundation was established in 1977 to provide lawyers and law firms with an effective vehicle for fulfilling their ethical obligation to ensure that all residents of our community have access to competent legal representation by funding legal services for the underprivileged. The Foundation awards grants to DC civil legal services organizations, administers the publicly-funded DC Poverty Lawyer Loan Repayment Assistance Program, and provides technical assistance and training to the District’s civil legal service providers.