Ramblings

The Rural Lawyer’s Imperative

/ Bruce Cameron / 1 Comment

Dear Thomas,

Your comment touches on the essential imperative of the rural lawyer’s (in fact any solo lawyer’s) career – the need to earn a living while building a practice. It is a career in which one trades security for autonomy and where survival is based as much on  ingenuity and enterprise as it is legal expertise. It is also a career that does not, necessarily, have to be done solo.

So, you need to ask yourself – do you really want to go rural solo or are you simply looking for a legal career in a rural area? While it may take some leg-work and a bit of networking to track them down, there are small rural law firms out there that are looking to hire new associates. These are the kinds of jobs you find through a friend of a friend of a friend or discover through a one-line classified ad on a state bar’s web site. These are also the kinds of jobs that will expect you to be somewhat productive from day one (so as a 2L, you may want to start volunteering at your local legal aid office).

If you are planning on going solo be prepared for hard work and little else. During the first few years of a solo career, 80% of your time is going to be spent on marketing your practice, 15% practicing law, and 5% on administrative tedium. During the first 6 months almost 100% of your time is going to be spent on marketing. Going solo out of school adds an additional layer of complexity to the mix – you have to learn the practice of law along with the business of law. Going rural solo is yet another step up on the complexity scale. A rural lawyer’s key relationships are those with people who can send him/her clients and building these community relationships takes time. With the exception of the rural kid returning to practice in his/her home town, start-up rural lawyers often locate their homes in rural communities and their practices at the edge of suburbia – think of this as “working on the edge looking out”. The thinking behind this type of mixed-clientele (rural + city) practice is that the resources of the big city (large potential client base, availability of mentors, etc) help sustain the practice and the practitioner thus providing time to build a rural referral network.

It is possible to go solo, it is possible to go solo out of school, it is possible to go rural solo out of school – just be prepared and go in with your eyes wide open and have a plan – know who your perfect client is, how you are going to reach that perfect client, what you will offer that perfect client, why that client should hire you, and where you differ from all the other lawyers out there.  Don’t be surprised to find that it will take a couple of years before you can meet both parts of the rural lawyer’s imperative – but don’t be surprised when you turn around one day and find that it sneaking up on you.

There is a need and opportunity out there in the night sky, even for the debt-ridden, newly fledged lawyer. The key is to be innovative, be enterprising, and think like an entrepreneur. There are options and resources out there to help you manage your debt, find mentors, set up a cost-effective, low-cost law practice, to do find free or low-cost legal research, to learn both the business and practice of law. It is within reach, it has its risks, it is possible, and if you can make that initial leap of faith you can do it.

See also:

Opportunity in the Night Sky

/ Bruce Cameron / 2 Comments

Thought is only a flash between two long nights, but this flash is everything – Henri Poincare

When last I ruminated on the definition of “rural lawyer” (see: What is a Rural Lawyer) I talked about practicing beyond suburbia’s sprawl as an adaptive specialist. Which, as far as that particular rumination goes, seems a fair description of the beast. However, it does seem incomplete, for there are those who choose to locate on suburbia’s edge but direct their efforts outwards into the void rather than inwards toward the city center. So, perhaps it would be more complete to describe the rural lawyer as one who sees opportunity in the dark of the night sky.

2000 Census "Night Sky" Map of Population Distribution

2000 Census - Population Distribution - Night Sky

The night sky shows us where the population concentrations (and presumably the lawyer concentrations) are. Rural areas are those dim, isolated stars and the surrounding black void – for the black is not a desolate wasteland devoid human population, but is an area of diffuse population. Think of it this way – there are 490 potential clients per lawyer in New York (20.4 lawyers per 10,000 people, 19,306,183 people) and 2,272 potential clients per lawyer in North Dakota (4.4 lawyers per 10,000 people, 635,867 people). Sure the numbers are crude and perhaps are not even representative, but they do illustrate that there is opportunity out there for the lawyer capable of dealing with the logistics of void.

Coming Out

/ Bruce Cameron / 1 Comment

Any one who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light, which is true of the mind’s eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye; and he who remembers this when he sees any one whose vision is perplexed and weak, will not be too ready to laugh; he will first ask whether that soul of man has come out of the brighter light, and is unable to see because unaccustomed to the dark, or having turned from darkness to the day is dazzled by excess of light. — Plato, The Republic

There comes a point when a lawyer wishing to be solo has to come out to his colleagues, friends, and acquaintances. It is a rite of passage that all solos go though, and like all holy rituals is both a uniquely personal and private experience, and a common community bond.

At a recent meeting with a number of in-house corporate lawyers, I made my usual introduction during the inevitable round-the-table introductions and watched as the words “in solo practice” produced the expected awkward silence. It was a fleeting moment lasting for less than a breath, but that brief moment was sufficient to see the thought “some of my best friends are solos” pass through the minds of the other participants.

I am sure that it would be easier for them had I provided an explanation as to the reasoning behind this choice, but there is seldom time and no one ever asks. There is seldom time, because the actual reasoning behind my decision is too complex and personal to be easily translated into an elevator speech. I oft quip that I went to law school because, as far as midlife crisis go, it had a better risk/benefit analysis than the “mistress and Ferrari” option – which offers as much insight into my reasoning as an elevator speech would.

I walk an alternate path under a different sun and I should not be surprised when those unaccustomed to its light are dazzled and unaccustomed to its light.

You’re Not From Around Here

/ Bruce Cameron / 2 Comments

Bears MeetingI recently attended a program on the financial issues in farm divorce presented by another rural attorney with 20+ years of experience dealing with the nuances of farm divorce and rural practice. About halfway into a discussion on disparate division of assets when dealing with struggling farms,  a very important attorney interrupted the speaker with a question. You could tell this person was a very important because she introduced herself as Jane Smith with the law firm of Dead White Guy, Really Old White Guy, Old White Guy, and White Guy (a venerable metropolitan big law firm), was impeccably dressed in a tailored power suit, carried herself in a predatory manner that screamed “I’m just waiting for my stress-induced myocardial infarction”, and prefaced her question with “while the majority of my practice is metropolitan, I’ve handled 3 farm divorces” before launching in to a 5 minute critique of the educational levels of the clients she had represented, that any farm should be classified as struggling, the gall of the rural courts for even considering granting any thing other than a strictly equitable division of the assets, and the audacity of her client, and the opposing counsel and his client (apparently they did not listen to her dictates as to how things should be done). Apparently, this was a hot button issue for her. But lady, it’s apparent that you’re not from around here.

Now, I have to admit that she had a very valid main point – from a metropolitan point of view it makes little sense to accept a settlement that pays 38 cents on the dollar when there are millions of dollars of assets available in the form of land, buildings, equipment, livestock, and crops both in the field and at the elevator. After all the equitable solution would be to divide assets & debts equally; to sell off and settle up. However, from a rural perspective, it can and often does make sense to settle for 38 cents on the dollar if it means that the departing spouse walks off with cash in their pocket and the knowledge that their ex still has the potential to continue earning a living and to be in a position to pay support and maintenance – selling off and settling up means selling off someone’s means of employment. It can and often does make sense to take that 38 cents on the dollar if the departing spouse was not actively involved in the farming operation because this spouse is more likely to have an off-farm job and a regular paycheck. But lady, you need to check that attitude at the city limits, ’cause it’s just going to raise the hackles of us country folk and sure hits a number of my buttons. Continue reading →

Herd Bound

/ Bruce Cameron

Perhaps it was the 3 articles in the ABA Journal’s weekly e-newsletter expressing astonishment at the success of lawyers going solo, or perhaps it was the odd looks I got at  yesterday’s County Bar’s New Lawyers Meeting when I introduced myself a SOS (solo out of school), but I been contemplating about herd bound horses and the practice of law.

I’m in the long process of gentling a young mare – a process made a bit more difficult by the fact that she’s herd bound. Now, for those of you who don’t know, a herd bound horse has a strong “emotional” attachment to its herd. Now, if this attachment is great for long term survival in the wild – for the wild horse, the herd provides direction and protection (straying to far from the herd tends to get one eaten). However, for the domestic horse whose biggest challenge is waiting for the 6:00 PM bucket of oats this attachment can be both a source of amusement and a source of frustration for its human servants – there’s nothing quite like trying to have a quiet ride when your horse is screaming, prancing, and whinnying simply because you’ve walked out of sight of the other horses. Continue reading →