How do you pay for law school?
The financing numbers are stark: in the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard, median federal loan debt at graduation at the typical law program was about $105,900.
The borrowing rules also changed on July 1, 2026 — Grad PLUS is closed to new borrowers.
Here is what federal limits apply, when a private loan fills the gap, whether an employer can help pay, and how repayment and forgiveness work.
What federal loans can law students get now?
Federal law school borrowing runs through the U.S. Department of Education's Direct Loan program.
Two federal loan types matter here: Direct Unsubsidized Loans, which carry fixed dollar limits, and Grad PLUS — the Direct PLUS Loan made to graduate and professional students.
The Scorecard's median federal debt figure of about $105,900 is the median of program medians across 178 law programs with data, combining Stafford and Grad PLUS borrowing.
Direct Unsubsidized Loans are the base federal loan, and they carry fixed dollar limits.
For periods of enrollment beginning before July 1, 2026, the annual limit for graduate and professional students was $20,500 — an $8,500 base plus $12,000 in additional unsubsidized — with an aggregate cap of $138,500.
Those are also the last figures the federal regulation sections this page's research read spell out for unsubsidized borrowing.
They are scoped to enrollment before July 1, 2026, so what the limits are for current enrollment periods is a question to put to the Department of Education's Federal Student Aid office rather than to assume.
Grad PLUS was the other federal loan in the mix, and it is closed to new borrowers from July 1, 2026 — a change the next section walks through.
What the debt data shows is why the loan mix matters in the first place:
- Median federal debt at graduation: about $105,900 at the typical law program with Scorecard data (median of program medians)
- School medians: from about $45,200 to $229,700
- High-debt programs: 30 law programs showed median federal debt of $150,000 or more, and 4 were above $200,000
All of those figures cover federal loans only — they exclude private loans and any undergraduate debt a student brings along.
That spread is one more reason the law school cost you sign up for and the way you finance it deserve equal attention.
What changed in 2026 borrowing caps?
The date that matters is July 1, 2026.
From that date, graduate and professional students — law students included — may not take out new Grad PLUS loans.
For anyone entering after that date, the Grad PLUS route above the unsubsidized limits is closed.
There is a transition.
The exception covers students already enrolled on June 30, 2026 who had a Direct Loan for that program: they can keep borrowing during their expected time to credential.
A student starting law school after that date cannot open a new Grad PLUS loan.
What replaces it is the part to be careful with.
New caps for professional students have been reported at $50,000 a year and $200,000 in aggregate, but the research behind this page could not confirm those figures in the Education Department regulation text it read.
Treat them as unconfirmed until Federal Student Aid states the numbers that apply to your enrollment period.
What is confirmed is this: the unsubsidized limits of $20,500 a year and $138,500 in aggregate applied to enrollment periods before July 1, 2026, and Grad PLUS closed to new borrowers on that date.
For a new law student, every current-year limit runs through the Department of Education's current rules — check them before you build a financing plan on any single number.
Borrowing rules are in transition
When private loans make sense
Private loans enter the picture when federal aid and scholarships do not cover the full bill — and the Grad PLUS closure removes one federal route for students starting after July 1, 2026.
Scholarships and grants shrink the bill before any loan enters the picture, so they come first in any financing plan.
Before you borrow privately, be clear about what you would be stepping outside.
Public Service Loan Forgiveness forgives remaining balances on eligible Direct Loans — Direct Subsidized, Direct Unsubsidized, Direct PLUS and Direct Consolidation Loans — after the equivalent of 120 qualifying payments made while working full-time for a qualifying employer.
A private loan is none of those Direct Loan types, so it is not an eligible PSLF loan.
That trade-off matters most if public-interest work is anywhere in your plans.
At the top of the Scorecard spread, school medians ran to $229,700 in federal debt alone — before any private borrowing — so the dollars a private loan adds are not small change.
When you do compare private offers, compare the total cost over the full repayment period rather than the first-year rate, borrow the least amount that closes the gap, and ask each school's financial aid office how private loans are certified and what happens if your borrowing needs change mid-degree.
Can your law firm employer help pay?
If you are working in a law firm or legal department — as a paralegal, legal assistant or other staff member — and weighing a JD, start with one conversation: ask your employer's HR contact or firm administration what education assistance already exists.
Whatever the answer is, you will have it in an afternoon, and it shapes everything else in the plan.
The part-time route is how studying alongside a full-time job works.
Most JD programs are three-year, full-time programs; part-time programs take about four years.
Part-time study is also a real option at scale: 86 of the 196 ABA-approved schools reported part-time first-year students in fall 2025.
Four years of study, though, means an arrangement an employer has to sustain — which is why the terms matter.
Get whatever is offered in writing: how much, for how long, whether it survives a role change, and whether anything is owed back if you leave before an agreed date.
And keep the employer question in view after you graduate too — as the repayment section below explains, a private firm is not an employer PSLF counts, so where you work shapes the debt side as much as the tuition side.
Repayment plans and forgiveness: an overview
The headline federal program is Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
PSLF forgives the remaining balance on eligible Direct Loans after the equivalent of 120 qualifying monthly payments made while working full-time for a qualifying employer — U.S. federal, state, local or tribal government entities, 501(c)(3) nonprofits and certain other nonprofits that provide listed public services.
Qualifying repayment plans include income-driven plans, the 10-year standard plan and the Repayment Assistance Plan.
Private, for-profit law firms are not qualifying employers.
Whether the payments look affordable is the other half of the math.
In the same Scorecard data, median earnings for law program completers were about $67,500 one year after completion and about $97,900 four years after — a median of program medians, covering federal-aid recipients.
Set that beside the typical program's median federal debt of about $105,900 above.
One limit to know: the tax treatment of PSLF forgiveness was not confirmed from a primary source in the research behind this page, so check with the IRS or a tax professional before planning around any tax assumption.
For the full qualification picture — which legal jobs qualify and how employer certification works — see PSLF for lawyers.
Career information, not legal or financial advice. Federal loan rules changed on July 1, 2026 — confirm current borrowing limits, eligibility and forgiveness rules with the U.S. Department of Education's Federal Student Aid office before you borrow.