Denied Admission to NY Bar Due to $430K Student Loan Debt, Law Grad Tries Again
Updated: Refused admission to the New York state bar in 2009 on character and fitness grounds because of a reported $430,000 delinquent student loan balance, Robert Bowman is trying again to persuade the authorities to license him.
And this time, it appears, his effort may be successful. In a motion to vacate filed earlier this month, he says that he has successfully worked with the general counsel of the New York State Higher Education Services Corporation, Thomas Brennan, to clear up multiple errors in his federal student loan accounts that he has been fighting since 2007.
As a result, his student loans will soon be reported to credit agencies as having never been delinquent, he tells the New York Supreme Court’s Appellate Division, 3rd Department in the 88-page filing. The removal of erroneous fees and penalties will also reduce the total loan balance significantly, he says.
In an e-mail to the ABA Journal, Bowman says that subsequent developments show that the Committee on Character and Fitness, which had recommended him for admission, “got it right.”
Besides putting him in a position to seek admission to the New York bar, his efforts to correct what he describes as “fraudulent servicing of my student loans” by Sallie Mae also saved taxpayers a considerable amount of money by eliminating accrued interest and fees that should never have been charged, he states.
Additional and related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Unpaid Student Loans Derail Law Grad’s Quest for NY Bar Admission”
ABAJournal.com: “Ex-BigLaw Associate Faces Ethics Case Over Alleged Nonpayment of $78K Student Loan”
Updated Sept. 23 to include information provided by Bowman to the ABA Journal.
