The Practice Magazine

Our bi-monthly magazine showcases the latest academic research on the legal profession. Each issue explores a specific theme and features the latest scholarship and original analysis. Written for busy practitioners and those interested in the global legal profession.

Student Debt

Current issue September/October 2023

In the United States, student debt has risen to such an extreme that it is regularly regarded as a "crisis." Law school is also not cheap. What is the effect on lawyers, and more broadly, society?

The Practice cover for sept/oct 2023 shows a piggy bank full of coins with a graduation cap on it.

September/October 2023

Article Search ALL ISSUES

Introducing the September 2023 Issue

After the JD Debt Law schools Students Well-Being

How is student debt impacting lives and careers—and the legal profession? A brief overview of our goals in this issue.

From the Editors

A note book on a table lies splayed open to a blank page with a pen lying across it askew.

The Black-White Student Debt Gap Among Law School Graduates

Meghan Dawe

After the JD Black Lawyers Debt Gender Law schools

The student debt crisis disproportionately impacts Black Americans, reflecting and perpetuating the Black-White wealth gap and reverberating over generations and the life course. Among law student populations, this disparity has spillover effects onto democratic processes and access to legal services, further creating and compounding inequality in the United States.

Lead Article

A Black woman holds two different stacks of coins comparing them—one is higher.

Debt Takes a Toll

After the JD Compensation Debt Gender Race Well-Being

How does debt impact physical and mental health? In this story, we talk to one researcher who studies long-term health trajectories to understand how debt affects people's lives over time, trying to understand for whom debt is and remains a deep burden.

A wooden toy is slumped over with a tag around its ankle that says debt.

Rethinking Law School Financing

Debt Future of law Law schools Law firms Public interest

Student debt is a public problem, but can the private sector help? A pair of case studies—on patent lawyer training and income share agreements—offer ways of rethinking how we pay for law school.

hands of a business person write on paper and punch numbers into a calculator.

Understanding the Law of Debt

Debt Law schools Politics Race Students

Dalié Jiménez, professor of law at The University of California, Irvine School of Law and director of the Student Law Loan Initiative, offers her perspective on lawyering for justice, the problems with debt collection and bankruptcy law, and ways students and society might move forward in confronting debt.

Speaker’s Corner

A pencil erases the word debt off a credit card.

What We Owe Our Students

Debt Politics Regulation Students

Senator Elizabeth Warren has been a fierce advocate for higher education reform and student debt cancellation for years. In this conversation with CLP faculty director David B. Wilkins, the senior senator from Massachusetts and former Harvard Law professor offers her thoughts on what is wrong with the current system and what should change if we want to bet on the next generation.

Speaker’s Corner