Email
SiteMap
Public interest scholarships
The Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP)
The Bill Phinney Fund, named for a prominent New Hampshire lawyer who set a personal example of pro bono representation, was established in 1987 by a generous gift from his widow, Eileen Phinney.
The Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP) assists recent Pierce Law graduates in full-time public interest employment (defined, as providing legal assistance to individuals who cannot afford to purchase private legal services) in repaying their law school loan indebtedness.
The assistance takes the form of reimbursement of a portion of the law school loan repayments that the public-interest graduate made in the previous tax year. Reimbursement is limited to five years. The assistance will not exceed 50% of the annual consolidated federal loan payments for the average Pierce Law graduate.
The Robert M. Viles Public Interest Scholarship
This scholarship commemorates Franklin Pierce Law Center long standing tradition, as inspired by Robert M. Viles, founder and former dean, to educate, train, and graduate law students who are committed to careers in public interest law. Candidates must show evidence of future dedication to public interest law and should be involved in public interest efforts beyond the reaches of academia. Amount: $5,000 toward tuition in each year of full–time enrollment. Renewable each year with minimum year–end grade point average of 3.2.
Bruce E. Friedman Scholarship Fund
The Bruce E. Friedman Scholarship is named after a professor and former director of the Civil Practice Clinic. The award of $1,000 is based on community service, public service participation, and commitment of the student while attending Pierce Law. Students from the first and second year, classes may apply. Two faculty recommendations are required including one recommendation from a member of the clinical faculty. Applications are accepted through the deadline. Funds are disbursed the following fall and spring semesters.
Bruce E. Friedman 1947-97 ----As an attorney for poor people in New Hampshire, Professor Friedman, with the help of his students, won major victories for children and other under-served and vulnerable clients. Professor Friedman was awarded the 1991 Voice of Children award by Child and Family Services and the NH Bar Association's 1993 L. Jonathan Ross Award.
Professor Friedman was a frequent lecturer in education programs for lawyers and others. He and his students also authored Justice for Juveniles, a widely quoted blueprint for improving the court's treatment of children of divorces. Professor Friedman taught Civil Procedure, Alternate Dispute Resolution and was the director of Pierce Law's Civil Practice Clinic.
He said this of himself and his aspirations:
"The first year of the Paper Chase was filled with much esoterica, including a required seminar on Judicial Review in England until 1700 (for which I did a book report entitled "Sir Francis Bacon: The Jane Fonda of History?"). That made me seriously wonder what law school had to offer besides a convenient basketball court. Thank goodness it had three stimulating and satisfying clinical courses that studied the art of lawyering and gave me a taste of and for litigation.
Fortified by excellent instruction and real-life experience in law school from my gurus, I then spent three busy years with New Hampshire Legal Assistance. After crawling up Mount Kilimanjaro, I returned to my hometown of Columbus, Ohio, as a Director of Litigation for Ohio State Legal Services Association. I hope to repay my law school mentors by inspiring Franklin Pierce students in the Clinic to handle cases competently and clients compassionately. For first-year students, I hope to make Civil Procedure comprehensible, comic, and cosmic-but then I am a dreamer."
