America’s Rural Lawyer Shortage (Or Why Law Students Should Get to Know Retiring Lawyers…)

A number of law students I have known have found great jobs in recent years in smaller communities.  Here is more evidence of the reason, from the Washington Post, as reported by Danielle Paquette:  “8,500 residents, 12 Attorneys: America’s Rural Lawyer Shortage.”

“Fourteen years ago, the veteran lawyer built his retirement home. He decorated the basement with snowmen and skis, a nod to how he’d like to spend the future. But John Thomas, 61, can’t retire. Can’t plan lengthy trips to Colorado resorts with his wife, Nancy. Not until he finds a successor, a young lawyer to take over his law firm in this town, population 94.

 

The problem: Young lawyers in these endless plains are about as scarce as freshly powdered slopes. That’s why Thomas’s hopes soared in February, when he opened a letter from Alissa Doerr, a second-year student at the Nebraska College of Law. She wanted to be his clerk for the summer. She was his first applicant in 20 years.”