Program Philosophy
The University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law encourages its graduates to seek employment and service in the public interest. Students, faculty, and administration are firmly committed to providing assistance to graduates who, in the noblest traditions of the law, desire to use their legal education to assist the less fortunate.
Student loan obligations can virtually foreclose the option of applying one's legal education to serve those most in need of legal representation. Large debt burdens requiring extremely high monthly repayments, coupled with relatively low salaries, have significantly deterred students from pursuing their public interest aspirations. In order to meet their responsibility to ensure equal and adequate representation for all persons, the legal profession and this law school must acknowledge and address this problem. Society cannot afford to allow such public-minded legal talent to be forced into private sector positions solely because of economic necessity.
Pacific McGeorge responded to this concern in 1995 by implementing a loan repayment assistance program for those students pursuing public legal service. This program acts as a form of post-graduate aid, providing grants from the law school to help graduates reduce their monthly loan obligation, thus enabling them to accept public interest jobs. Graduates who maintain a long-term career in the public interest field can potentially receive this assistance until all of their loans are repaid.