This is the kind of article that would have sent chills down my spine even a few months ago: The fact that a lawyer has too much debt may be grounds for being denied admission to the bar. I have struggled with debt for years. I have carried "toxic debt" around longer than I care to admit. I used to have late payments out the wazoo. It never occurred to me when I entered law school that debt could ruin my plans of becoming a lawyer. It was only into my third or fourth year that this possibility stared me in the face. And I dreaded the character and fitness application process for this reason. And in my character and fitness interview, the subject of my debt came up. And the lawyer interviewing me did wince, when he saw the total. But he noticed that I had made payment arrangements and was caught up on everything. What I didn't tell him, and should have, is that I also cut up all my credit cards and haven't used credit in several years. That would have helped my case. But in the long run, I didn't need help. He recommended that I be admitted and I was. The scary part of this article is that the New York bar examiners did approve this man to be admitted to the bar, and a panel of judges reversed the decision.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/02/business/02lawyer.html
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