Alumni

Loan Forgiveness 

Howard A. Glickstein Loan Repayment Assistance Program

At Touro Law, we have a longstanding commitment to support our graduates who choose to pursue careers in the public interest. To that end, we created a Loan Repayment Assistance Fund to offer graduates who work full-time in public interest assistance with the repayment of loans used to finance their legal education. Because the endowment for the program is still relatively small and we expect applications to be relatively high, grants will be awarded on a competitive and need basis and reflect financial reality. 


Who Qualifies

To qualify, you must be a Touro Law Center graduate who works full time (35 hours or more each week) in public interest legal employment and whose annual salary does not exceed $57,000 per year. For the purposes of this program, public interest legal employment is defined as legal work performed while engaged in poverty law, civil rights law or charitable organization representation. This definition includes legal work affecting broad areas of public concern including the legal rights of consumers, the elderly, minorities, the poor, and groups whose legal rights are not otherwise adequately represented and who traditionally lack access to the courts. Specifically:

  • Poverty law includes legal services in civil and criminal matters on behalf of a client who lacks the financial resources to compensate private counsel.
  • Civil Rights law includes legal representation involving the rights of an individual in whom society has a special interest in protecting.
  • Charitable organization representation includes legal service to charitable, religious, civic, governmental and educational institutions in matters in furtherance of their organizational purpose, where the payment of customary legal fees would be otherwise inappropriate or impossible. 

Any Touro Law graduate may apply regardless of his/her year of graduation. Prior award recipients are eligible to apply in subsequent years. Debt qualifying for loan repayment awards consists of all educational debt financed through the Law School Office of Student Financial Services (Stafford, LAL, LSL, etc.).


To Apply

Applications should be submitted by December 1 for consideration and disbursement by the first quarter of the following year. Your application should include a short essay addressing your commitment to public interest law and why loan repayment assistance is required. The Law Center reserves the right to ask for a copy of your most recent federal income tax form, a letter from your employer stating position and current salary, copies of bills for all loans listed on the application, and copies of the most recent canceled checks sent in payment for all loans listed on the application. 
Applications should be submitted to the Bonnie Griff in the Financial Aid Office, 225 Eastview Drive, Central Islip, NY 11722; e-mail to bgriff@tourolaw.edu or fax to (631) 761-7029.

Federal Student Loan Forgiveness

The College Cost Reduction and Access Act, 9/2007, helps public service lawyers in two main ways: It lowers monthly student loan payments on federally guaranteed student loans (Income Based Repayment or IBR) and secondly, it cancels remaining debt for public servants after 10 years of public service employment. For additional information see the following links: