By Lawrence Hurley
Daily Journal Staff Writer

WASHINGTON - Lawmakers in Washington began their latest push Tuesday for a national loan forgiveness sch eme for prosecutors and public defenders in an effort to stem the tide of attorneys defecting to the private sector.
Under the proposal introduced by Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., who is himself an attorney, fledgling prosecutors and public defenders could have $30,000 of debt wiped out if they agree to serve for three years.
If applicants stay in their jobs for another three years, they could have a further $30,000 of their debts paid off.
The proposal, modeled on a program made available to federal employees, has received unanimous support from prosecutors and public defenders around the country as well as their respective professional groups, including the National District Attorneys Association and the National Legal Aid and Defender Association.
As Durbin noted at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday, the average student has $51,000 of debt upon graduating from a public law school, or $79,000 if they graduate from a private school.
Once other costs are included, some have debts of more than $100,000 he added, meaning that the attraction of high-paying private sector jobs - where the starting salary can be as high as $160,000 per year - is hard to resist.
"It's no secret why," Durbin said. "Just look at the math."
Senior prosecutors and public defenders, especially in large urban areas such as Los Angeles, are struggling to recruit and retain talented staff.
California is particularly hard hit, according to Michael P. Judge, chief public defender for Los Angeles County.
He reported in written testimony to the committee that 83 percent of California's chief public defenders say that recruiting has been harmed because of high student loan debt.
Riverside County, for example, has 59 vacancies out of 149 authorized positions, Judge said.
In Los Angeles, the number of deputies who cite financial reasons when they quit has tripled, while the number of potential employees who reject job offers has also risen, he added.
Judge, who was forced to cancel his trip to Washington for the hearing after breaking his arm, could not be reached for further comment.
On the other side of the fence, the Los Angeles district attorney's office had a hiring freeze in the early part of the decade, but is still the largest local prosecuting agency in the country with around 1,000 attorneys.
District Attorney Steve Cooley supports the loan forgiveness program, having lobbied lawmakers last year when Congress debated an earlier version of the bill.
He told Rep. Howard McKeon, R-Santa Clarita., in an April 2006 letter made available by his office Tuesday that the proposal "would encourage qualified attorneys to choose careers as prosecutors and public defenders and to continue in that service."
Officials from the San Francisco district attorney's office could not immediately be reached for comment.
One advantage potential employees have in California, however, is that starting salaries are generally higher than the $45,000 average in the rest of the country, although some attorneys point out that the cost of living is also higher.
California Lawyer magazine reported in a January survey of municipal attorney salaries that the starting salary for public defenders ranges from $42,000 in Fresno County to as high as $90,000 in San Francisco.
In Los Angeles the starting salary is $56,000.
Assistant district attorneys generally earn the same as their colleagues in public defenders' offices in most counties, the survey reported.
But it would appear that whatever the salary, prosecutors and public defenders across the nation are complaining about hiring and retention problems, especially in the face of the six-figure salaries offered by law firms.
Teresa Caffese, second in command in the San Francisco public defender's office, said the biggest unknown is how many potential candidates don't bother to apply anymore because of the need to get a high-paying job to pay off debt.
She said that could be a contributing factor to the difficulties in attracting minorities, who often have high college debts.
"It prevents people who otherwise would apply from even putting in their applications," she said.
During the hearing in Washington, Durbin noted several examples from his home state of Illinois of assistant prosecutors taking second jobs to pay off their loans.
One was a part-time baggage handler at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, while another sold cosmetics at night.
Paul A. Logli, the state's attorney for Winnebago County, Ill., told the committee that even when he does hire promising young prosecutors, they rarely stay long.
That means he has a real shortage of career prosecutors to handle high-profile cases.
"More and more of our serious, complex cases in our felony courtrooms are being prosecuted by less experienced attorneys who are only a few years out of law school," he said.
Durbin has already attracted bipartisan support for his bill, which was approved by the committee in the most recent Congress but failed to pass the Senate.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is one of the co-sponsors.
Durbin stressed in particular the importance of having qualified and experienced lawyers working in the criminal justice system.
"When prosecutor and public defender offices cannot attract new lawyers or keep experienced ones, their ability to protect the public is compromised," he said.

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