New York State Bar Association Calls on Administration To Maintain a Public Student Loan Forgiveness Program
1.21.2026
The New York State Bar Association calls on the Trump Administration to ensure that public sector lawyers — who represent crime victims, children, and numerous and other clients — can benefit from the federal Public Student Loan Forgiveness Program.
The House of Delegates, the association’s governing body, approved a report that details the devastating effect that changes in student loan forgiveness will have on New York’s legal service providers.
“First-generation law students who planned to return to their communities to serve their low-income neighbors upon graduation, are instead applying for private sector work because of crushing student loan debt,” said New York State Bar Association President Kathleen Sweet. “America made a promise to these lawyers that if they invested their time and talent in public service they would be rewarded with loan forgiveness. We are asking the government to keep its promise to them.”
The Executive Order signed by President Trump in March 2025 proposed a reshaping of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program by limiting the type of public service work eligible for loan forgiveness. The order cites activities such as abetting illegal immigration, supporting terrorism or violent protests, and facilitating gender-affirming healthcare, as grounds for exclusion from debt relief.
The association also supports passage of state bill S161/A1602, to increase financial assistance and expand eligibility for loan forgiveness. Without loan forgiveness, the report concludes, legal services organizations will lose talented attorneys who will choose private practice over public service.