HLS Alum Gives $5M Gift To Promote Public Service

A Harvard Law School (HLS) alum has given $5 million to endow 20 fellowships that will fund a program to help new graduates pursue public service careers in the federal government.

The program, financed by Samuel J. Heyman, HLS Class of 1963, will help fellows work off their loans and give each an honorarium. It will encourage these graduates to make a three-year commitment to government service.

Heyman, chair and CEO of GAF Corporation, a maker of commercial roofing materials, made the gift out of a concern for the decrease in the number of law graduates going to Washington. Before entering the private sector, the now-billionaire Heyman began his career as a lawyer for the United States Justice Department.

"Among our nation's most critical issues today is our increasing inability to attract a sufficient number of the brightest and the best to government service," he said in an HLS news release.

The National Association for Law Placement, which for 25 years has been tracking the job choices of new law graduates nationwide, said that only 13.3 percent of graduates entered the government in 1998, down from 18.5 percent in 1975, according to a Washington Post article on Nov. 10.

Heyman fellowships will be awarded based on "academic performance, promise, and personal financial requirements," according to the release.

"I think [the program is] a great idea," said Michael Minahan, 22, a first-year law student from Worcester who cited outstanding student loans as a potential barrier from entering the government. "I was surprised something like that didn't already exist."

Margo Schlanger, an assistant HLS professor who is on the committee to administer the fellowships, said another aspect of the program will set up conferences to allow Heyman fellows and top government officials to share their experiences.

"This gift will invigorate the School's rich tradition of public service by graduates at the federal level," said Dean Robert C. Clark in the release. "Perhaps this program will help produce the next Elizabeth Dole or Archibald Cox."

According to data from HLS' career placement office, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, 40 to 50 out of about 550 HLS graduates entered government work, according to the Post article. But by June, 1998 the number had declined to between seven and 10 graduates.

Part of the reason for this decline is the large amount of debt incurred by present law students, which was not the case in the past, Schlanger said.

"The average debt for a graduate is $70,000, but it is common to have $90,000 to $100,000 of debt, and not unheard of to have $120,000," she said, adding that she got her numbers from the HLS financial aid office.

Also, the discrepancy between private and public sector salaries has significantly increased.

In 1978, first-year jobs in the federal government and a Boston law firm earned about the same amount--about $60,000, adjusted for inflation, after taxes and loans, according to a recent Boston Globe article on Nov. 13.

But now a student taking a job with the government would earn only $51,000 after taxes and loans versus $103,000 for a Boston firm, said the same article.

Heyman said he hopes similar programs will be created at other law schools and universities.