Rural Lawyer Shortage

HIPY PAPY BTHUTHDTH

/ Bruce Cameron

So Owl wrote…and this is what he wrote: HIPY PAPY BTHUTHDTH THUTHDA BTHUTHDY. Pooh looked on admiringly. “I’m just saying ‘A Happy Birthday,'” said Owl carelessly. — A. A. Milne

October has swept all most all of her color from the trees and Rural Lawyer now turns 3; which in technological terms is early middle age (at least by Moore’s law standards). One would think that this momentous occasion would be marked by public fanfare and wild acclaim, but alas the world has continued with nary a pause, blithely unaware.

On to other things — 

Macleans.ca reports that British Columbia has opened a new law school (the first in 30 years) with the mission of addressing British Columbia’s rural lawyer shortage. The article reports that British Columbia Chief Justice Lance Finch has suggested that the bar will need to double admissions to meet the demand for lawyers. The article notes that the lawyer shortage does not extend to metropolitan Canada.

Where, oh where are you tonight?

/ Bruce Cameron / 2 Comments

Where, oh where, are you tonight?
Why did you leave me here all alone?
I searched the world over, and I thought I’d found true love,
You met another, and PFFT! You was gone! — Marian B. Yarneall

The rural lawyer may not be your true love, but it does seem that they are going PFFT! The good news, according to this article in the Argus Leader and this one in the Rapid City Journal, is that at least one state bar association is taking notice of the problem and starting to do something about it. The South Dakota Bar is creating Project Rural Practice to address that state’s decline in rural lawyers and, in conjunction with community leaders, to find incentives that will attract lawyers to the small towns of rural South Dakota. Many, many kudos to the South Dakota Bar.

Now, I’m one of those people who think that packing up and heading to rural South Dakota to practice law would be an interesting adventure (but then I’m also of the opinion that good neighbors are live a quarter-mile away, it is feasible to raise a calf (for a brief period) in your kitchen, and that starting a solo practice in a recession is a boffo career move), thus my idea of an incentive may be a bit biased and more readily negotiated than those of a normal person.

What would incite you, dear reader, to pack it up and head to the wind-swept prairie? Some things to consider after the break.

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