12
CAN TODAY’S
YOUNG LAWYERS
AFFORD PUBLIC
SERVICE CAREERS?
Scott Tolliver was a grade school student watching coverage of
the O.J. Simpson trial when he first got the glimmer of an idea
that he might want to become a defense attorney. Years later,
when he received the prestigious Public Service Scholarship that
paid his entire third year of tuition at Stetson University College of
Law, his life plan took a giant step toward becoming reality.
“What that scholarship allowed me to do was to
pursue something that I was passionate about,”
said Tolliver, J.D. ’15, who is now an
assistant public defender in Florida’s 10th
Judicial Circuit in Lakeland. A true
believer in defending the indigent, his
courtroom experience has only confirmed
that he’s exactly where he wants to be.
But success stories like Tolliver’s are in danger.
Many U.S. law graduates now leave school with
loans in six figures. Without the help of scholarships to defray
debt, law school graduates sometimes cannot afford to work as
prosecutors or public defenders, or in other public service positions
at non-profits or government agencies.
“Most of them have debt that is around $100,000, some of them
around $200,000, which we call the mortgage without the house,”
said Bob Dillinger, J.D. ’76, who regularly hires new law school
graduates as the public defender in Florida’s 6th Circuit.
This summer, Dillinger got a surprising indication of the effect
student debt is having on his office. For the first time since he was
elected in 1996, Dillinger had three $47,000-per-year assistant
public defender positions open, but no active resumes on hand
from candidates wanting to fill them.
“The debt is a big factor that’s taken people
away from public service simply because
they want to try to make more money
to pay off that debt,” said Dillinger,
who in 2015 received Stetson’s
prestigious William Reece Smith Jr.
Public Service Award.
So how can bright young lawyers afford
to go into public service law?
Scholarships are a key part of the answer, said Kevin Hughes,
assistant dean of development and alumni relations at Stetson.
“I know for many of our students, these financial concerns weigh
on them in terms of thinking, what’s the future going to hold?
They’re very aware of it from the beginning of their law school
careers,” Hughes said. Loans are used not only for tuition but
also for living expenses, including the all-important time spent
studying for the bar exam.
Scholarships have always been a way of recognizing accomplished
students and making sure they can afford an education. But in
this climate, scholarships can benefit the whole field of public
service law, by ensuring that law students don’t turn away from it
before they’ve even started.
“It’s important for us all to attract talented people to pursue a
legal education so we have those talented people in the
prosecutor’s office and in the public defender’s office,” Hughes
said. “It’s important not to be pricing people out of the
opportunity to pursue those careers.”
When students do receive scholarships, Hughes said “it lessens
the burden for them as they think about what they’re going to do
post-law school and it gives them a sense of relief. It gives them
peace of mind.”
F E ATURE
B Y C U RT I S K RUEGER
Scott Tolliver
Bob Dillinger
GIVING BACK