Rural Practice

A Well-Informed Mind

/ Bruce Cameron / 1 Comment
A well-informed mind is the best security against the contagion of folly and of vice. The vacant mind is ever on the watch for relief, and ready to plunge into error, to escape from the languor of idleness. – Ann Radcliffe

At a recent “new lawyer” seminar the speaker, in response to a question from the audience, spent quite some time dispensing tips and procedures for avoiding “bad” clients and provided a cautionary tales about how they handled their “worst” clients. While the tips were the usual dull platitudes,  I was struck by the automatic assumption that there are “good” and “bad” clients – seems a fairly silly base level assumption to make if one is in what is essentially a customer service business.

As I see it, clients come to a lawyer during times of stress. They come to us in a frame of mind that prevents them from operating as their highest, most rational self, and they come to us more through the actions of the imp of the perverse than through their own volition. So, is it any wonder that, at these times, they may require some hand-holding as they venture onto this new and unknown path. Or that, to a stranger, they may appear to be difficult or unpleasant. There is no good or bad here, there are just people who are reacting rather than consciously acting.

Implicit in our role as advocate, is the assumption that our clients lack the standing, skill, knowledge, ability, and perhaps even the emotional capacity to speak for themselves. It follows then, that as an advocate, it is part of our function to inform our clients, to clarify expectations, to educate and inform, to stave off that “plunge into error”. When we take on the mantle of advocate, the base level assumption becomes one that allows clients to be somewhat less than themselves; allows for less than stellar behavior.

There are no good or bad clients, there are client’s whose “shadow-self” (to borrow a phrase from Pauline Tesler) is one I am not prepared for, but that is my failing, not the client’s. My job is to learn and do better the next time. Hey, perhaps I did take something away from that CLE after all.

An Accident in the Heartland

/ Bruce Cameron

This weekend there was an accident in our community. It was one of those events where we learn yet again that there is a fine line between urgency and carelessness and where we are shown that the human body is no match for horsepower, physics and heavy machinery. It was also one of those events that brings a rural community together – when the calls of concern and the offers of help arrive on the heels of the emergency vehicles. Neighbors, friends and strangers band together to see that the crops are brought in, the chores are done and the injured are cared for. And it was one of those events where one senses a wave of palpable relief sweep through the community when the word comes through that, this time, there were no life threatening injuries, no serious trauma and the only injuries are those cured by time and rest.

Now that the moment has past, I am left contemplating my fragility, the wholly unpleasant thought of emergency planning for my practice, and asking if my ICE file (in case of emergency) will be adequate for the occasion of my injury. The very nature of being a solo means that, unless prior plans are made, no one will be there to care for my clients. So, I am spending some time reviewing plans made and thinking about what new plans need to be made.

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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.