Harvard Law School’s unprecedented initiative to waive the final year of tuition for students who agree to work in the public sector will provide a measure of relief for government and nonprofit agencies that struggle to attract and retain debt-burdened young lawyers, officials in those fields said yesterday.

The program, announced yesterday, will save students who commit to work in public service for five years more than $41,000 in tuition, reducing the average $100,000 debt load at graduation by 40 percent, school officials said. Those jobs include working as an assistant prosecutor or as a lawyer for an advocacy group or a political campaign.

“People say we have enough lawyers, but we don’t have enough lawyers representing vast numbers of people in our society,” said Emily Spieler, dean of Northeastern University’s School of Law.

While some Harvard Law students said the program would persuade more students to pursue public-service careers, other educators downplayed its impact. Spieler and others said they believe that a vast majority of the elite school’s graduates will continue to pursue high-paying and prestigious jobs with private firms.

Other educators also said that most universities, including many private schools, lack the resources to follow suit.

“It’s a little hard to compete with Harvard in terms of money,” said Freda K. Fishman, associate director for public interest programs at Boston College Law School.

The Harvard measure, the first of its kind nationally, follows a sweeping financial aid initiative for undergraduates the university unveiled late last year.

The law school program is designed to give more graduates the freedom to forgo lucrative positions in corporate law firms in favor of less profitable public service jobs. Surveys of law graduates indicate that rising debt burdens are an increasing deterrent to working in the public sector.

Many graduates of private law schools enter the job market with loans in excess of $100,000 and feel compelled to maximize their income to handle steep monthly payments. Other graduates manage to scrape by for a few years on a tight income, but eventually leave the nonprofit world for higher-paying posts.

“In the last few years in particular, we aren’t getting the number of applicants we used to,” said Bob Sable, executive director of Greater Boston Legal Services, which provides free civil legal assistance to low-income people in the Boston area. “Then, there are lawyers who decide they just can’t stay here on their salary, no matter how much they want to. The combination of high student loans and high housing costs makes it very difficult.”

Harvard’s incentive program takes effect this fall and complements a generous loan-forgiveness program already in place for students who take lower-paying jobs. Current students will be eligible for some tuition breaks.

The program will cost an estimated $3 million a year. About 12 percent of Harvard Law School graduates now take government and nonprofit positions.

“I want all of our students to have the ability to make public service their first choice after law school,” said Dean Elena Kagan. “We have tried in many ways to make this choice easier, particularly for students who have accumulated significant debt in college and law school.”

Daniel Young of Vienna, Va., who has been accepted at Harvard Law School, said the new program is a strong inducement to enter the public realm.

“I think it’s fantastic, largely because of the standard expectation that it’s only possible to repay six-figure debt if you go to a top law firm,” he said. “The idea of the debt burden is very intimidating.”

Anne Levin, a first-year Harvard student, said she believes the program will persuade some students to consider public service careers and allow those who are “deeply committed” to such work the financial freedom to pursue it.

Harvard’s plan coincides with new federal legislation, slated to take effect this fall, that allows lower income-based payments and will forgive loans for graduates from any field who spend 10 years in a public service job.

“We absolutely believe that [the law] will encourage more students to become engaged in public service,” said Susan Prosnitz, executive director of Suffolk University Law School’s Rappaport Center for Law and Public Service.

In response to the growing debt burden, law schools have introduced and expanded loan forgiveness programs in recent years. More than 100 law schools have such programs, according to the American Bar Association, compared with 47 schools in 2000.

Yet public sector jobs remain a tough sell, with wages that pale in comparison to the corporate world. First-year salaries at firms with more than 500 lawyers rose last year to $145,000, according to the National Association for Law Placement. In contrast, the current entry level salary for prosecutors in Massachusetts is $37,500, forcing many to work second jobs and creating high turnover.

“They make less than the janitors that clean the courts,” said Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O’Keefe, who has lobbied for increased starting salaries for prosecutors and public defenders. “The thought of staying for any significant length of time becomes almost impossible.”

Source: www.boston.com