For this applicant to the bar anyway: here. The circumstances seem unfortunate, and the purpose served by excluding this applicant unclear. Does he pose a threat to the public interest, or merely seem the wrong sort of person for lawyers like us? Absent facts not reported in the article, the latter seems more likely.
This is the price of barring discharge of student loans via Chapter 11. The guy really got himself in a trap. Acceleration, penalties, interest at some point made it pointless to make payments. He never made any. Besides - he was busy studying for the bar. And he had to eat. Now he is burdened by a massive and unshakable debt.
So the judgment is that a guy who conducts himself so incompetently is a bad bet for reliably handling the responsibilities a lawyer commonly has to clients. The panel's judgment on character and fitness seems practical and reasonable. It's not the debt - it's the incompetence, and the burden.
Posted by: George Conk | July 02, 2009 at 11:21 AM
Did you see how quickly it jumped from 200 to over 400? Hate to say it, but while 200 is high it's not at all unheard of. The penalties and acceleration got pretty steep.
Posted by: john steele | July 02, 2009 at 12:58 PM