Not enough "character" to practice law? Seems pretty dumb since how can he pay the loans without working?

Bar to lawyer: You have too many student loans to practice
Zac Bissonnette
Jul 7th 2009

The New York Times reports on the sad tale of Robert Bowman, a law school graduate whose application for admission to the New York bar was rejected -- because he had too much student loan debt and had a history of missed payments.

He was recommended for approval by the applications review committee but that decision was reversed by a panel of five state appellate judges: "Applicant has not made any substantial payments on the loans," the judges wrote. "Applicant has not presently established the character and general fitness requisite for an attorney and counselor-at-law."

With more than $400,000 in student loans and accumulated interest, the judges apparently felt he had not demonstrated the judgment worthy of practicing law in New York.

While there is a good amount of not entirely unfair righteous indignation over the outcome of this case so far, Mr. Bowman's bizarre borrowing record does raise an eyebrow and, to be honest, you do have to question his judgment. Mr. Bowman had not made a single payment on his student loans in the 26 years since he began taking them out.

The irony of course is that without the ability to practice law, Bowman will have virtually no prayer of getting his financial life in order.

But here's the good news for Sallie Mae: Student loans can't be discharged in bankruptcy, and Social Security benefits can be garnished to make payments on loans that are in default. And the more penalties he racks up, the more money, ultimately, they'll collect. So Mr. Bowman's life may be ruined in every meaningful way, but the party has just begun for the lenders.

Only two ways out of this financial ghetto, just like any ghetto. He needs either:
1) A jump shot.
2) To slang rock.

I don't think it's so much that he has too many/too much $ in loans, it's that by my estimates, he didn't pay for at least 11 years that he should have, assuming in school deferments (except when in London), proper filing for deferments, etc. I am unsure how medical deferments work, so I may be off significantly on that.

jcole21 said:Only two ways out of this financial ghetto, just like any ghetto. He needs either:
1) A jump shot.
2) To slang rock.

although a 'wicked' jump shot would be even better

He can get a low paying job for a non-profit for 10 years and have all his loans forgiven.

geo123 said:ppatin said:The idea that you need "character" to be a lawyer is ridiculous. If that was the case every medical malpractice and personal injury lawyer in the country would be disbarred.

That being said, this guy is clearly a deadbeat.Believe it or not, the character and fitness applications in most if not all states are anything but a joke. Back when I had to apply for it in my state, the application was something like 25 pages long and asked for every single address that you had over the past 10 years and every single credit card, loan or any other type of an indebtedness that was outstanding. They asked about not just about your convictions but also arrests and even criminal or civil charges that were merely threatened and it made no difference whether something had been dismissed, expunged, sealed, etc... I believe the statement on the front page was that if anyone, including a court, had ever told you that you were not required to disclose something, it still had to be disclosed for the purposes of the character and fitness examination. You had to disclose whether you had ever visited a psychiatrist, psychologist or any other type of therapist and whether you had ever experienced any mental health issues including but not limited to things like depression. You also had to disclose every single lawsuit that you were ever involved in in as a plaintiff or a defendant.

They also pulled a copy of your credit report, criminal report and the driving record. They sent out questionnaires to your previous employers asking them about the circumstances of your employment, your conduct while employed there, circumstances involving your departure, etc...

Now, it obviously doesn't mean that if something popped up in the course of these examinations, it necessarily precluded you from practicing law. They just wanted to have the total picture of a person's past to ensure his/her "good moral character."

Yet there are numerous wackos out there practicing law ...

He should have done an AOR to transfer the debt.

RS4Rings said:......But here's the good news for Sallie Mae: Student loans can't be discharged in bankruptcy, ......

It was my understanding that if you could prove that you could no longer work in a field related to your education, then the loans became dischargable (such as when someone becomes permanently disabled).

Am I the only one that finds it odd that he took 26 years to get his law degree and pass the bar?

Assuming he began at age 18 he is now 44. Lets just assume he would pay 40k on his loans until they were paid off. 400/40 = 10 years of payments. (we will just neglect loan interest to be nice) Age 44 now becomes age 54. Not sure when he planned on starting to save for retirement but that would not be a good age to begin. Sounds like pretty poor planning on his part really. I feel bad for him but the loan companies always sent me letters saying how much my monthly payments would be and to be sure that I could pay them back when I got finished with school.

Okay, so just add being accused of "being too old to start practicing law" to his discrimination lawsuit. Unless there is an age limit in his state that applies to everyone that I am unaware of. The guy passes the bar and has some unpaid debt. You'd be surprised how much law school will set you back nowadays. There's no point in denying him now other than personal opinions, which is discrimination.