The Reasonably Prudent Law Student

In our most recent Podcast Ipsa Loquitur, Josh Camson and I discussed law school tuition hikes as well as the ABA’s loan relief proposal. In a much-appreciated attempt to help out struggling law students and lawyers, the ABA proposed using TARP funds to help unemployed lawyers by converting their private loans to federal ones.

Congress, Geithner, and President Obama are less than compelled to action by this proposal, but the ABA says it will continue to build up support for its proposal for student loan relief for recent grads. There have been meetings on Capitol Hill that have been unsuccessful so far, but the ABA will continue working to help those of its members that are struggling with loan repayment.

It’s very nice to see the Bar attempting to do its own a solid, and that’s all I’ll say about the Bar since I have not been admitted into its ranks yet. I hope they’re successful in helping recent grads with private loans; every little bit helps these days.

As for me, this makes no difference. I’m as screwed as everyone else. By the time I graduate, I’ll probably have something like $80-$90K worth of student loans. But they’re all federal loans – Staffords (subsidized and unsubsidized) and Graduate Plus.

Debt is horrible. Islam has very stern things to say about debt. Islam’s first order is, don’t fall into debt. Islam’s second order is that, okay, if you’re in debt, make that your top priority. Get that shit paid off.

Islam also has very strict inheritance rules (like, the sons inherit this much, the widow inherits a smaller portion, the daughters inherit a smaller portion – the rationale being that the sons have their families to support, and the sons will be supporting the mother, also, so the mother doesn’t need as much, and the daughters are presumably married and as such supported by their husbands so they don’t need much to survive since that’s the husbands’ job, and if they are unmarried, then their brothers will be supporting them anyway), and the one most emphasized is that when a person dies, regardless of to whom he leaves what, the very first thing satisfied is his debt. If he leaves 100% of everything to the wife, then the wife gets whatever is left after his debts are repaid. This is nothing new or surprising; these are very common-sensical rules.

Yes, I said common-sensical.

Yes, I hyphenated it.

So Islam has already, understandably, stigmatized debt. That’s fine. Debt is horrible.

But all of that notwithstanding, student loan debt is the best kind of debt to have. And as far as law students go, we’re all going to be in debt when we graduate, pretty much, because unlike doctors, we can’t head out to the Caribbean and find a cheap-o law school and then just come back to the states and take the Barzam.

Thankfully for us, recent legislation has worked out income-sensitive federal loan repayment, in which you have to pay 15% of your disposable income in loan repayment, which is a pill much easier swallowed. Essentially, the government has capped off the amount of your disposable income that you’re expected to put toward loan repayment.

So, yes, I’m freaking out about my loans as much as everyone. But at least I know that I’m not going to be stuck at a $30K a year job and have monstrous loan payments to make.

Also, I keep getting all these emails from Publisher’s Clearing House that Gmail doesn’t filter out, and you can bet your ass that I click on all of them.

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