About the Louisiana Bar Foundation Kendall Vick Public Law Fund
In 2018, the Kendall Vick Public Law Foundation provided funding to the LSU Law Center for a Loan Repayment Assistance Program (“LRAP”) geared toward Louisiana lawyers practicing in public service positions.
Mr. Kendall Vick, a New Orleans attorney for many years, was passionate about establishing a way to encourage law graduates to seek careers in public law. Following his death in 1997, the Board of Directors of the Vick Foundation concluded that providing funding for the LRAP program was a direct way to accomplish Mr. Vick’s vision to encourage careers in public law.
Kendall Vick was born in St. Louis, Missouri, but he lived in New Orleans for over 30 years. He was a graduate of Emory University School of Law in Atlanta and Washington University in St. Louis. He completed graduate studies in international law at the London School of Economics and advanced legal studies at Balliol College of Oxford University. He was a U.S. Army veteran, serving during the Korean Conflict.
Among his many civic and governmental activities were his service as Director of the Governor’s Commission on Intergovernmental Relations. He was an appointed delegate to the 1973 Louisiana Constitutional Convention. He also served as an assistant professor at Loyola University College of Law in the mid-1960s and provided many years of legal expertise to the American Civil Liberties Union.
He was proud of serving as an Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Division of the Louisiana Department of Justice from 1972 to 1988. During his tenure, he issued hundreds of Attorney General Opinions and argued nine cases on behalf of the State of Louisiana before the United States Supreme Court.
Upon his death, the Vick Foundation was funded and began its activities in 1999. Shortly thereafter, in 2003, the American Bar Association approached Congress to provide a tax benefit for law graduates who chose careers in public law, rather than more lucrative private practice. Given the level of student loans, Congress recognized that those in the public sector would have more difficulty paying those loans than the attorneys who entered private practice. The result was the adoption of a section of the Internal Revenue Code that provides that financial assistance to law graduates working in the public sector from LRAP Programs is exempt from income taxation. (Awardees should always consult your tax advisor.)
The Louisiana Bar Foundation named the Vick Foundation the recipient of its Horn Blowers Award in 2009 in recognition of its support encouraging careers in public interest law. In 2019, the Bar Foundation named the Vick Foundation the 2018 Calogero Justice Award recipient.
Baldwin Haspel Burke & Mayer attorney Jerome Reso, Jr. served as the President of the Kendall Vick Foundation until it became a restricted asset of the Louisiana Bar Foundation in 2021. Under the guidance of the Louisiana Bar Foundation, the mission of the Vick Foundation to encourage careers in public law will continue.
Thanks to the generosity of the Louisiana Bar Foundation Kendall Vick Public Law Fund, the LSU Law Center will award $50,000 in loan repayment assistance in spring 2022.
