Foundation raises budget for law scholars' grants

Galloping increases in law school tuition and mounting burdens of student debt have prompted the Illinois Bar Foundation to increase the amount of its 13 annual scholarships to from $2,000 to $3,000 each.

The recommendation from the IBF Scholarship Committee was presented by its chair, Peoria attorney Elizabeth L. Jensen, who said committee members “have been struck by the amount of debt most of the applicants have.”

She added that a review of recently submitted applications indicate that most law graduates would finish their educations with “well over $80,000 in loans.”

The American Bar Association has reported that tuition for public law schools increased from 1992 to 2002 by 134 percent for residents and 100 percent for non-residents. The increase in private law school tuition was 76 percent over the same period.

“The average tuition at the 10 private law schools that we provide scholarships to is $30,000,” Jensen pointed out, and the average among the three public law schools is $11,600.

A study by the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar revealed that the average debt for law graduates in 2002 was $70,299 in private schools and $44,649 in public schools.

The Bar Foundation began offering scholarships of $750 to one student at each of nine Illinois law schools in 1980. Two Missouri schools were added in 1983.

The amount was raised to $1,000 in 1994 and to $2,000 in 1997. Valparaiso was added in 2003, and Notre Dame in 2005, bringing the total to 13 affiliated law schools.