Law Students: Does Debt Correlate with Character and Fitness?
So, the news of the Robert Bowman’s extreme debt has been out for a while now, but if you haven’t been following along, here’s the gist:
Bowman put himself through community college, and then worked and borrowed to get through college, grad school, and law school. He took the New York Bar four times before he passed it, but he did in fact pass. During his time in school he was in a serious motorcycle accident (not his fault) and was struck by a Jet Ski while swimming (also, apparently, not his fault).
Anyway, after all his hard work and hardships, Bowman ended up with $435,000 in debt. The State Bar of New York decided that such a large amount of debt and Bowman’s failure to have made any payments on that debt meant that he had not established the requisite character and fitness to practice law.
I’d like to hear what other people think about this. It’s only natural to end up with a pile of debt after law school, but how much is too much? And if you’re counting on getting a job as an attorney to pay off those loans, and you can’t because you have too many loans to be admitted to the Bar, what do you do?
It does seem, at least to me, to be an extraordinary amount of debt. I think it was irresponsible of Bowman to have taken so many loans without having a reasonable plan for paying them off. In general, I support the decision of the committee on character and fitness on this one. Do you?
2 Responses to “Law Students: Does Debt Correlate with Character and Fitness?”
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About the GJEL Blog
Ben Buchwalter is Director of Client Outreach for GJEL Accident Attorneys. Before joining GJEL, he studied political science at Haverford College and worked as a writer and researcher for Mother Jones Magazine and Talking Points Memo. Ben enjoys skiing, public transportation, and television detective dramas.
My understanding of this is that his debt mounted to such epic proportions because he failed to make any payments on his original debt of circa $250,000 because he disagreed with the amount. This is stupid. You pay, and then contest it later. Defaulting on your loans intentionally is crazy irresponsible. Would you want to hire an attorney who failed to answer a complaint because he disputed the merit of the claims or the grounds for jurisdiction? No. There are processes in place to make the system efficient. I have no issues with what the bar did to this guy. He should know better.
New York provides a list of conduct that raises concern regarding character and fitness. Specifically, “neglect of financial responsibilities or professional obligations” can give rise to further investigation. I would like to believe the Character and Fitness Committee further reviewed Mr. Bowman’s debt and made a decision based on the specific facts surrounding his circumstances.