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Dean's Message to 2012 Graduates and Recent Alumni
Dear Students and Alumni:
As you start or continue your legal career in these pressing financial times, rest assured that Pace Law School will continue to offer both established and innovative methods of assistance. We present below information uniquely applicable to graduating students and those alumni who may currently be out of work or facing a substantial debt burden. You may navigate through the categories of information by clicking on the section headings below this paragraph.
- Financial Assistance
- Health Care
- University and Law School Services for Alumni
- Alumni Connections
- Pace LL.M. and Practical Lawyering Programs
- Career and Job Search Assistance
- Bar Applications and Admissions
When you came to Pace Law School you joined a community of students, scholars, teachers, caring professionals and a network of thousands of alumni across the country and the globe. We are proud of the achievements of our students during their time at the Law School and we cheer and support them during their fruitful and exciting careers. We hope that you will continue to make Pace Law School as much a part of your life as we make you a part of ours.
Dean Michelle Simon
Pace Law School offers a Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP) to provide financial aid to graduates with a high level of law school debt who work in public interest, government, or other lower income organizations. The participants and amounts of the LRAP loans are determined by an applicant’s level of indebtedness and adjusted gross income (maximum $55,000 per annum), and eligibility for loan forgiveness under any other loan repayment assistance program. The amount awarded to each graduate ranges from $3,000 to $5,000 per year for three years. Applications are due January 31st of each year. For further information, please see the LRAP information page or contact the Office of Student Services (914) 422-4136.
Bar Examination Loans
Taking time off to prepare for the Bar exam can create financial hardships. The cost of Bar preparation courses can also add up quickly. Loans specifically for this purpose are available from private lending sources. Please visit http://studentlendinganalytics.com/ratings.html for more information and to compare the lenders that offer bar exam loans.
College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007 (CCRAA)
Signed in September 2007, the CCRAA offers financial assistance to law school graduates holding qualifying federal loans. Benefits can include reducing your monthly loan burden (Income Based Reduction, or IBR), if your debt is high and your income is low, for both private and public sector employment, and forgiving the remainder of your debt after ten years of qualifying public interest employment (primarily employment with nonprofits and any kind of government agency). Heather Jarvis of Equal Justice Works, the national expert on the CCRAA, gave an excellent presentation at Pace, which can be accessed here. Equal Justice Works provides extensive information, including excellent webinars, on the state of loan repayment assistance programs, including the CCRAA. See their website at www.equaljusticeworks.org. To sign up for email updates on the CCRAA and the new public interest forgiveness program, or to determine if you qualify for IBR, please visit www.ibrinfo.org. New information is becoming available on a daily basis. For more information, contact Adriana Pace, Associate Director of Financial Aid, at (914) 422-4050 or Jennifer Friedman, Director of the Public Interest Law Center, at (914) 422-4265.
Many graduating students have expressed concern about their health care coverage after graduation. Please explore the options below to determine which best suits for your needs.
Student Health Insurance Available for Three Months after Graduation
If you are currently using Pace University’s Accident & Sickness Insurance Plan, you may be able to purchase the first three months of the 2012-2013 plan to extend your coverage. Your current plan will cover you until midnight August 14, 2012. Once the plan is renewed by the University and the form is released, the Office of Student Services will send an e-mail. The extension application will need to be submitted with payment prior to August 15, 2012.
Student Health Insurance from the ABA Available for up to One Year after Graduation
The ABA Law Student Division health insurance plan with UnitedHealthcare Student Resources (UHCSR) offers a health insurance coverage extension for up to one year PROVIDED the student is a member of the ABA Law Student Division, currently carrying the Division’s plan with UHCSR, AND there is no break (lapse) in that coverage between the date of graduation and the first day of this one-year extension.
For more information and plan benefits: http://www.americanbar.org/groups/law_students/membership/unitedhealthcare_home.html
Since benefits may be different than your current plan, you may view the health plan benefits and enroll online at www.uhcsr.com/ABA. Please contact UHCSR directly at 800.505.5450 for specific information on the plans.
As an alumnus of the Law School, you may already be aware that you will have continued access to many University Services. More detailed information can be found on the University alumni webpage and the Law School alumni webpage and include the following:
Fitness Center Alumni Membership
Located on the Pleasantville Campus, the Ann and Alfred Goldstein Health, Fitness, and Recreation Center provides Pace alumni the ability to purchase memberships to use the Recreation Center at a discounted rate. A properly validated Pace University Alumni Photo ID card must be presented at all times for admission to the center. Consult published and posted schedules for facility hours. For additional information, please click here.
Continuing Legal Education
Pace Law School Center for Continuing Legal Education offers discount for CLE programs for attorneys who are unemployed, employed by the private sector or who work for a not-for-profit entity. The application for this discount must be submitted to Kathleen Carlisle, Director, Pace CCLE at least two weeks prior to the program. The application can be found on the CLE website. Also, the CLE Department hosts Bridge the Gap Weekend, where new graduates you can earn one full year of MCLE credits in one weekend by attending the program in December. Please visit their website for the dates and registration information.
Pace Law School has meeting rooms available for outside organizations. Please view the Law School website for information about reserving meeting space.
Please note that your Pace Law School email address will not expire. You can also use the Alumni Online Community which provides a set of powerful password-protected services which facilitate alum-to-alum as well as Pace-to-alum communications and networking. Popular services include an online directory of all alumni, Class Notes postings, and discussion groups, where you will be able to post messages and update your contact information. By registering with the Online Community, you will receive the Law School’s monthly alumni e-newsletter so you can stay up to date on news and events.
LexisNexis and Westlaw
After graduation, Pace Law School students' Westlaw and LexisNexis accounts will continue to access the career databases for approximately one year, but otherwise will not be valid. Students who are studying for the Bar will also have five hours a month of access to Westlaw during June and July. For further information, please view Westlaw's site by clicking here.
Through the LexisNexis® ASPIRE (Associates Serving Public Interests Research) program, all students and graduates (including December 2011 graduates) engaged in verifiable 501(c)(3) public interest work, including deferred fall associates engaged in verifiable public interest work, 2012 graduates engaged in verifiable public interest work while searching for employment, 2012 graduates engaged in verifiable public interest work as a continuing profession, and current students engaged in verifiable public interest work, will be able to access certain LexisNexis services free of charge. Qualified students may acquire access by registering at http://www.lexisnexis.com/aspire or by visiting www.lexisnexis.com/lawschool and clicking on the program advertisement. Please contact Mary Beth Drain at firstname.lastname@example.org or (800) 437-8674 x7862 with any questions about this program.
Pace Law Library provides a host of services useful to the recent graduate. The general brochure outlining these services is available at http://law.pace.edu/library/alumni.pdf. The Law Library has also created a guide to free and low cost resources for legal research. In addition, the Library has a public access version of Lexis that is available for use by our alumni when they visit the Library.
You can stay in touch with the law school and fellow classmates and alumni by visiting one of the following sites:
There are many good reasons to continue your legal education after receiving your JD. Principal among these is the opportunity to develop or further cultivate your expertise in a field of specialization such as environmental or tax law. Also, in this economic environment, some people are choosing to further their education as a way to do something useful while riding out the storm – to continue their professional development when job opportunities may be scarce.
If you are thinking about continuing your own legal education, Assistant Dean Mark Shulman would be glad to meet individually with you to discuss the options. Dean Shulman oversees Pace’s LL.M. programs and can advise you about the opportunities here. Pace Law School offers the world’s first LL.M. track dedicated to Climate Change and has added another track in Law of Land Use and Sustainable Development. These programs build on our long-standing excellence in environmental, land use and energy law to offer a unique head start on a career in one of these growing fields. Many of you are eligible to complete one of these programs by taking as few as 12 additional credits. This means that you obtain an advanced degree in as little as one year of part-time study or one semester full-time.
If you wish to discuss any of our LL.M. Programs, please email or call Mark Shulman at (914) 422-4338.
If you are still looking for post-graduate employment, you can rest assured that the Center for Career and Professional Development (CCPD) is doing all that they can to help you, regardless of your practice or geographic interest. You will need to take a break from the job search process to study for exams, graduate, and study for and take the Bar Exam.
The Center for Career and Professional Development is open all summer long and available to Pace Law School alumni at any stage of your career. Call 914-422-4217 or email Christopher Gentry to make an appointment with one of the counselors. As an alumnus, you will also continue to have access to Symplicity, so that you can continue to access the job posting database as well as CCPD announcements.
One of the ways the Center for Career and Professional Development can continue to help you look for post-graduate employment is by making your resumes available to employers. The CCPD is creating a resume book for graduating students to be referenced and matched to employers as they notify the CCPD of positions and that the CCPD will use to actively solicit alumni and employers on your behalf.
If you would like the CCPD to have your resume on hand, then please (a) upload a copy of your resume onto Symplicity, update your profile (graduation date and year in school) and contact information on Symplicity, and email Christopher Gentry that your resume is uploaded and may be used for the resume book; OR (b) email Christopher Gentry a copy of your resume and your updated contact information so that the CCPD will know how to reach you over the coming months.
The CCPD will advise you of any employers or alumni that ask for your resume or any employers or alumni to whom they send your resume. Please note that in identifying potential contacts for you, the CCPD relies not only on your resume, but on counseling notes and the information you supply in the CCPD Cap and Gown employment form. It is therefore very important that you speak with a CCPD counselor if you have not done so already and that you (a) complete the CCPD Cap and Gown employment form before you graduate, OR (b) email the CCPD with your (1) contact information; (2) employment status (legal/non-legal, full-time/part-time); and (3) areas of interest, both legal practice wise and geographically.
After the Bar Exam, Continue Your Job Search Process
Stay in touch with the CCPD and your professors. There are often research, project and other positions available with various professors, clinics, centers and departments here at the law school.
Many organizations and bar associations hold job fairs in August and September (as well as other times during the year), and many of these fairs are open to law graduates. The CCPD maintains a list of career fairs; and PSLawNet is a great resource for job fairs both local and national.
For those interested in judicial clerkships, there are often openings throughout the year due to newly appointed judges and staggered clerkship terms. You should periodically check OSCAR (the on-line federal clerkships job posting database), state court websites and Symplicity for openings. Make an appointment with Stephanie Golden, Private Sector and Judicial Clerkships Advisor.
Similarly, opportunities in the government can arise for which the application process will be more involved and will require advance planning and forethought on your part. For example, candidates for NYS attorney positions in areas including securities and public finance may have to sit for competitive civil service exams on scheduled dates. To learn about this process, go to www.cs.state.ny.us/jobseeker/public/index.cfm. Also, make sure you are registered www.usajobs.com and check that site regularly for federal positions around the country.
Reciprocity with Other Law School Career Offices
If you are looking for employment outside the tri-state area, the CCPD can arrange for your use of the resources at another law school career services office. Contact Chris Gentry with your request, including the name of the law school with which you are seeking reciprocity.
Practicing Under a Student Practice Order
Before you are admitted to practice, you may seek to develop and sharpen your legal skills by performing pro bono services. You can do this by rendering legal services under a student practice order issued through a qualified governmental agency or public interest organization. Working under a student practice order typically requires direct supervision by an attorney affiliated with that organization. Each jurisdiction has specific rules regarding the extent of the practice allowed and the duration.
New Jersey: http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/rules/r1-21.htm
Many students have already come into the Dean's Suite with questions about the Bar application process. While we are happy to help answer your questions and assist you with the process, please also refer to the How to Deal with an Ethical Dilemma resources created by Deborah Scalise, attorney and adjunct professor.