Ex-Law Student Auctions Off His Name to Pay Off Loan Debt

Why not sell the rights to your name to pay off your law school loan debt? Great idea, nothing bad could happen because of this!

If you’ve been a loyal reader of Above the Law, you know that law school graduates have done some pretty crazy things to pay off their educational debt, up to and including the attempted sale of their law degrees on websites like Craigslist and eBay. Back in 2008, a graduate of DePaul Law tried to sell his degree on eBay for $100,000, the approximate value of his law school loans. Similarly, in 2010, a graduate of Georgetown Law attempted to sell his degree on Craigslist for his remaining student loan balance.

Some of these stunts failed miserably, but others (sort of) worked — the disgruntled Georgetown graduate managed to sell his diploma for 10 percent of the original asking price. But what about the current deluge of downtrodden law students? What can they do to offset their student loan debt?

Well, they can sell their names on eBay, for starters….

Meet Jason Madsen, a former student at Charlotte School of Law. Madsen completed his first year of law school, but was unable to enroll for 2L year because his GradPlus loans were denied due to adverse credit. Perhaps the government did him a favor, but he’s still got tens of thousands of loan debt dollars hanging over his head, all incurred during his 1L year. What’s a poor boy with one-third of a law degree to do? This:

Here’s Madsen’s sob story, laid out as a description of the item he’s put up for sale (click to enlarge):

Sponsored

We spoke to Madsen earlier today. With regard to his adverse credit, it’s true: 98 percent of the time, Madsen paid his bills all the time. The other two percent of the time, he allowed one of his credit cards to go to collections over a balance of about $400. With the way the government typically hands out student loans with unfettered abandon to people who may never be able to pay them back, who knew they’d be so stingy?

Madsen told us all about how he ended up at Charlotte Law, an illustrious, unranked institution, with a Law School Transparency employment score of 34 percent, which earned its ABA accreditation in June 2011:

I went to Charlotte School of Law because they accepted me. My LSAT wasn’t great, and at the time I was a recent college grad with no meaningful job prospects. I never had plans to be some big firm lawyer. I was more of an idealist. My plan was to work in the public sector and repay my debt through income-based repayment plans and debt forgiveness programs for lawyers working in the public sector. I figured if I planned on working in the public sector, I didn’t need to go to a top fourteen school — that I could make it work. Like I said, an idealistic plan, but it was my plan nonetheless.

This special little snowflake wanted to be a do-gooder, but the school allegedly cared more about iPads than financing his education. He claims he never failed a class, and his grades were mostly Bs and Cs. It’s a good thing he didn’t aspire to go into Biglaw, because with marks like that, he wouldn’t have stood much of a chance. In today’s job market, he’d probably wind up like Tristan Taylor Thomas, stocking shelves in retail hell.

Madsen’s got roughly $60,000 in law school debt, but that doesn’t include the loan debt he incurred during undergrad. All in all, he’s about $100,000 in the hole thanks to his educational pursuits. Here’s what he had to say about his law school debacle: “I don’t want to return to law school. I simply want to pay off my debt and put everything behind me. If I could do it all over again I never would’ve went to law school.”

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Ninety-eight percent of the time, hindsight is 20/20 — the other two percent of the time, you go to Charlotte Law. Maybe FreeCreditReport.com would be willing to bid on Madsen’s name to prevent this sort of thing from happening to others. Won’t you throw a couple of your extra bonus dollars at this worthy cause? After all, “Law School Ruined Me” is a name that’s got a wonderful ring to it. If only there were a “Buy It Now” option!

Legally Change My Name to Anything you Want! [eBay]

Earlier: Update on the Georgetown Law Grad Who Sold his J.D. on Craigslist
The Resale Value of a Georgetown Law Degree
Craigslist Post of the Day: Top-Tier Law Degree ($59,250)
Loyola 2L Has A Worthy Successor (Or, an interesting way to promote a porn site.)