Character & Fitness Fail for Law Graduate With ‘No Plan’ To Pay Off His Debts
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Re: Character & Fitness Fail for Law Graduate With ‘No Plan’ To Pay Off His Debts
#2Just to be clear, this isn't about the guy who offered to leave law school in his 5th semester in exchange for all his tuition back. This is an entirely different situation with an entirely different flavor of fail.
Re: Character & Fitness Fail for Law Graduate With ‘No Plan’ To Pay Off His Debts
#3I'm having trouble getting the facts through the indignant tone of the article... how much of this is "can't get a better job until I pass the bar, can't pass the bar until I pay off my debts (for which I need a better job)"?
Re: Character & Fitness Fail for Law Graduate With ‘No Plan’ To Pay Off His Debts
#4I think it is also a significant indicator that he has $16,500 in credit card debt which he also can't pay off. That sounds to me more like he has serious problems around understanding his financial responsibilities than a law student who was required to rack up a large student loan but was doing their best to control it.
I am not convinced by some of the indignant tone of the article either - maybe they have no right to tell him what he should be doing with his life, but surely the whole point of the bar exam is that they have the right to decide if he's the kind of person they want to allow to pass the bar?
Re: Character & Fitness Fail for Law Graduate With ‘No Plan’ To Pay Off His Debts
#5As an Arizona State Univ. grad myself, I can say that his undergrad alma mater probably doesn’t help his Character assessment!
… but as far as (fiscal) fitness, it’s known to be an exceptionally cheap school, so at least he tried to keep his undergrad debt to a minimum.
Re: Character & Fitness Fail for Law Graduate With ‘No Plan’ To Pay Off His Debts
#6I think it is also a significant indicator that he has $16,500 in credit card debt which he also can't pay off. That sounds to me more like he has serious problems around understanding his financial responsibilities than a law student who was required to rack up a large student loan but was doing their best to control it. I am not convinced by some of the indignant tone of the article either - maybe they have no righ…
That's about $5,000/year while enrolled in law school. Is it _that_ bad?
Re: Character & Fitness Fail for Law Graduate With ‘No Plan’ To Pay Off His Debts
#7I think it is also a significant indicator that he has $16,500 in credit card debt which he also can't pay off. That sounds to me more like he has serious problems around understanding his financial responsibilities than a law student who was required to rack up a large student loan but was doing their best to control it. I am not convinced by some of the indignant tone of the article either - maybe they have no righ…
I've got to say I agree. In my last job, I trained a guy fresh out of law school to be a pizza delivery boy. From what I learned from him, law school is extremely expensive and you're in a tough spot after graduating and waiting for your bar exam, but he was still capable and determined to make enough money to keep himself afloat.
Even as a pizza boy, he was making more than $12, and working more than 24-32 hours per week.
I don't see any martyr here, and the entitled tone of the article doesn't help the argument either.
Re: Character & Fitness Fail for Law Graduate With ‘No Plan’ To Pay Off His Debts
#8I'm having trouble getting the facts through the indignant tone of the article... how much of this is "can't get a better job until I pass the bar, can't pass the bar until I pay off my debts (for which I need a better job)"?
He had a job as a stock broker and changed it for a $12 /hr part time job, which is what the board took issue with.
Honestly, it's neither that interesting nor that well written of an article.
Re: Character & Fitness Fail for Law Graduate With ‘No Plan’ To Pay Off His Debts
#9The headline of the article is misleading. A guy who has a job as in public defender's office cannot promptly pay off his $400K in student loans due to the fact that his wages in the public defender's office are ~ $12/hr and he has a daughter. The Ohio Bar is attacking his "Character & Fitness" for not pursuing the kind of legal profession that would enable him to earn the kind of money that people who work for private law firms typically make, and ignores the intangible value he's "paying back" to society by working for a public defender.
What is the value of defending years of freedom for those people who wouldn't otherwise get legal representation, who might and spend 30 years in jail as an innocent person?
Re: Character & Fitness Fail for Law Graduate With ‘No Plan’ To Pay Off His Debts
#10The headline of the article is misleading. A guy who has a job as in public defender's office cannot promptly pay off his $400K in student loans due to the fact that his wages in the public defender's office are ~ $12/hr and he has a daughter. The Ohio Bar is attacking his "Character & Fitness" for not pursuing the kind of legal profession that would enable him to earn the kind of money that people who work for priva…
Its probably misleading cause you misread it. His loans are 170k, reasonable for law school graduate, and C&F has nothing to do with present or future career decisions.