SLS’s Ongoing Collaboration with Flywheel Fund for Career Choice Encourages More Students to Pursue Public Interest Careers

STANFORD, CA, December 8, 2023—In furtherance of its comprehensive financial aid strategy, Stanford Law School (SLS) has announced that it will fund the third cohort of Flywheel Fellows, composed of ten SLS students from the class of 2026. The Flywheel Fund for Career Choice is a non-profit, pilot project created by alumni from Stanford Law School and Harvard Law School to encourage more graduates of leading law and professional schools to pursue public service careers by reducing the impact of law school debt on their career decisions. 

SLS has collaborated with Flywheel since 2022, with Flywheel funding the first two cohorts of students in the program. Currently, 30 SLS students are enrolled in the program, spread across the ‘24, ‘25 and ‘26 classes. This is the first year SLS is funding a cohort of fellows, given the increasing interest from students and the promise of the pilot.

“Our financial support of the Flywheel Fellows underscores the law school’s longtime focus on finding new ways to put legal education within the financial reach of more students and to support our students’ public interest aspirations,” said SLS’s Robert Weisberg, interim dean and Edwin E. Huddleson, Jr. Professor of Law. “In 1985, we became the first law school to offer a loan repayment assistance program when we launched the Miles and Nancy Rubin Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP). Continuing to take the lead with testing new options for funding a legal education, especially for our students who want to benefit society via a public service role, is something that SLS does best. We were honored when the Flywheel Fund approached us to work with them on their innovative model for financing legal education and we are delighted to now provide financial support for this latest cohort of exceptional SLS students.”

“Improving financial aid and support for our students has long been a goal at SLS,” said Frank Brucato, SLS’s chief financial officer. “SLS students already graduate with one of the lowest average debt loads among our peer schools. Our goal for this pilot program is to extend our already robust loan forgiveness program and offer more flexibility to our students. We are delighted that so many of our students expressed interest in the program and the desire to participate and we are continuing to explore how to expand the program.” 

This new approach to funding higher education involves upfront investments in students, through Income Share Loans (ISLs), up to $170,000 for tuition and expenses per student. The goal of the program is to link repayment to future income and recycle funds to finance the education of future cohorts. 

Elliot Schrage, chair of the Flywheel Fund, said, “We created the Flywheel Fund to empower and enable talented graduates to commit their time and energy to mission-oriented careers. Our efforts to grow this program would not have been possible without the support and collaboration from the leadership teams at Stride Funding and Stanford, and we look forward to rolling out similar programs at other law and professional schools.” According to Schrage, the Flywheel Fund is in discussions with other top law and professional schools “in order to advance diverse public service missions.”

Learn more about the Flywheel Fund at SLS here. 

About the Flywheel Fund Pilot Project

The Flywheel Fund for Career Choice is a nonprofit organization created by alumni of Harvard and Stanford law schools. It seeks to expand career choices for law school students, enabling them to pursue public service or other lower-income careers more quickly after graduation. Stanford does not endorse the Flywheel Income Share Loan. The Flywheel Fund is not affiliated with Stanford University nor Stanford Law School. Learn more at www.flywheelfund.org.

About Stanford Law School

Stanford Law School is one of the nation’s leading institutions for legal scholarship and education. Its alumni are among the most influential decision makers in law, politics, business, and high technology. Faculty members argue before the Supreme Court, testify before Congress, produce outstanding legal scholarship and empirical analysis, and contribute regularly to the nation’s press as legal and policy experts. Stanford Law School has established a model for legal education that provides rigorous interdisciplinary training, hands-on experience, global perspective, and focus on public service, spearheading a movement for change.