Chances are that if you are reading this article and graduated from law school within the last 10 years, you are a part of the 90% of law school graduates with student debt. You also likely have about $130,000 of debt from undergraduate and law school, which has affected or delayed your decisions about certain aspects of your life. This reality was supported by a recent survey conducted by the American Bar Association Young Lawyers’ Division and the AccessLex Institute Center for Legal Education Excellence. Both organizations collected data from a group of attorneys representing law school graduates in their 20s and 30s in big law, solo practice, government, industry, and non-profit settings, with the purpose of assessing the burden of student loans and its impact on life decisions.

The results revealed that the significant debt burden being carried by borrowers either delayed or deferred participation in major life events. For example, more than one-third of the survey’s participants either postponed or decided not to have children. Twenty-seven percent said they postponed or decided not to get married. More than half of the participants decided not to buy a house. The debt also impacted borrowers’ career choices. Over half of the participants reported that their debt caused them to weigh salary more heavily than they initially thought upon entering law school.

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