The new president of the 70,000-member New York State Bar Association said the organization will advocate for incentivizing lawyers to work in “legal deserts” through student-loan forgiveness programs—in the same way teachers and doctors are motivated to work in underserved areas.

Richard C. Lewis spoke of the concept as he got acclimated to his office in the association’s Albany headquarters Friday, his second day as president. He will be sworn-in on June 10 by Appellate Division, Third Department Presiding Justice Elizabeth Garry during the bar’s House of Delegates meeting at the Otesaga Resort Hotel in Cooperstown.