In an attempt to narrow this gap, HLS spending on student grants has increased by roughly 50% over the last two years-compared with a 7% average annual rise in past years.

In order to help HLS graduates in low income fields, the school pioneered a program which later became known as the Low Income Protection Plan (LIPP) to forgive some student loans, but other schools copied LIPP, and in many cases were able to improve on it.

Clark's plan proposes the elimination of many of the restrictions on LIPP, such as its salary cap and its stipulation that careers must be law oriented, and proposes to guarantee to each incoming class the availability of LIPP upon their graduation.

HLS will also seek to bolster its already strong international reputation by increasing financial aid for foreign students. The Plan asks for a $10 million endowment for further aid to the law school's graduate LL.M. program, which serves mostly foreign students.

"There is a real effort to increase scholarship aid for foreign students...to enable people who can't afford it to come here when they have the ability," says Henry J. Steiner `51, director of the HLS center for human rights.

The plan will also try to incorporate more international scholars into the faculty-which Steiner says will also enhance the study of domestic matters.

Understanding international law, Meltzer says, is important both professionally and intellectually for lawyers.