Missouri Bar gives assist to public sector lawyers

According to recent American Bar Association studies, tuition at Missouri’s law schools has risen between 76 percent and 134 percent from 1992 to 2002. During the same period, starting salaries for public defenders increased only 38 percent.

State officials say the financial variance is now restricting recruitment of state attorneys.

The Missouri Bar Association is coming to the state’s aid with a loan repayment assistance program, started in mid-2004, to help public attorneys pay off their escalating educational debts.

Stephen Murrell, staff director of the Missouri Bar Foundation and legislative counsel for the Missouri Bar, said that the Missouri Bar Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, has raised almost $150,000 since July 2004. The goal this year is $250,000 by July 1. Donations, primarily from firms in Kansas City and St. Louis so far, are tax deductible.

“Our goal is to give the first awards out next September at the annual meeting of the Missouri Bar” in Kansas City, Murrell said.

For Anissa Moore, a first-year assistant public defender in Springfield, the program could be a godsend.

“I would definitely apply for something like that,” said Moore, who graduated from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Law School in May with $116,000 in student loans – more than twice the average debt for UMKC graduates. She began working at the Missouri State Public Defender’s Office in Springfield Aug. 10 and makes $33,729, the state rate for first-year public defenders.

The awards would be based on the amount of income versus the amount of actual eligible student loan debt, and lawyers would be required to go through an application process that Murrell said has not yet been finalized.

“The maximum award amount is $4,000 per year, so if we were to decide to set aside $32,000, that would be eight awards at the maximum level. But it’s set up so that … if your adjusted income is less than $30,000 you could receive up to 100 percent of your loan paid that year, up to $4,000,” Murrell said.

Law school debt

According to a recent ABA survey, 66 percent of law students said their debt stopped them from considering public service positions.

Over a 10-year period – from 1992 to 2002 – tuition at Missouri’s public law schools has risen 134 percent for residents and 100 percent for nonresidents, and it has increased 76 percent at private law schools. In 2003, the average debt for graduates of Missouri’s four law schools was $63,867.

Over that same period, the starting salaries for public defenders increased from $23,220 to $31,992 annually.

“People don’t have any idea that you can make more money at a manufacturing plant, especially if you get some overtime, than you can as an attorney for the state of Missouri,” Murrell said.

Public defenders

Starting salary for first-year assistant public defenders is $33,729 per year, said Jane Frew, human resource director for the Missouri State Public Defender’s Office in Columbia. After completing six months, assistant public defenders are eligible for an increase to $37,128 per year.

The salary, combined with student loan debt and turnover rate of 22 percent, presents a challenge when recruiting throughout the state, Frew said. She added that some qualified applicants decline job offers and assistant public defenders have left the system due to the salary. “They simply couldn’t support a family and meet their financial obligations,” Frew said.

There are 16 attorney positions in the Springfield office, handling cases in Christian, Greene and Taney counties. Statewide, there are 291 attorneys in the trial division, and 40 percent of them have less than two years of experience, Frew said. Attracting and keeping public defenders, she said, is valuable in many ways. Consistency in representation is beneficial to the client and to the courts, and it reduces the need for training new employees.

Moore said that she never considered working in the private sector.

“I did an internship with the (Kansas City) Public Defender’s Office for a year (during) my third year of law school and I just loved it and knew that’s what I wanted to do,” she said. “I think that my career at the Public Defender’s Office is so much more rewarding in different ways other than money. … I’m in court every day, I’m negotiating, I’m talking to clients, I’m talking to prosecutors, I’m talking to judges, I’m making contacts, and I don’t think I would get that opportunity anywhere else.”

Moore said that it is possible to deal with student loan debt if a career in the public sector is a lawyer’s passion.

“I was able to consolidate my $116,000 of debt at about 3 percent. On a graduated scale, that makes my payments about $278 a month for two years and then it goes up about $50 every two years, and it’s over 30 years,” she said. “If I had consolidated my loans with the cap at 8 percent, there’s no way I would be able to afford to work here.”