To illustrate the dire need for more attorneys in rural America, a University of Arkansas Bowen School of Law professor tells the story of an older lawyer, well beyond typical retirement age, who wouldn’t leave his job in a one-lawyer town until a younger legal mind came to take his place.
When a neophyte finally set up shop, the elder man packed up and headed into a much-earned respite.
“Two or three months later, the gentleman passed away,” said Amy Pritchard, director of Bowen’s Rural Practice Incubator Project. “There are a lot of attorneys in the state wanting to retire but putting it off. We’re talking about people who are 70, 75.”
Launched in September 2018, Pritchard’s Little Rock-based incubator of country lawyers is one among several efforts nationwide aiming to broaden access to legal counsel for rural dwellers who too often — and often to their detriment — are forced to forgo such expertise. Arkansas has a statewide average of 2.04 attorneys per 1,000 residents. But, in its 25 most rural counties, the ratio is .64 per 1,000. The recognition of similar gaps elsewhere in the United States is driving endeavors such as the 18-month-long incubator to provide everything from summertime fellowships for existing law students to financial and other supports for newly minted lawyers either establishing private, rural practices or signing on with government-funded Legal Aid offices far outside of big cities.
“It’s paramount that we fill in the resource gap for rural communities, so that everyone has access to justice, not just those near metropolitan areas,” said Aoife Delargy Lowe, director of law school engagement and advocacy at Equal Justice Works.
From the 450 applicants to the Washington, D.C. organization’s 2020 round of Rural Summer Legal Corps fellowships, 35 law students will be selected. The applicants hail from 139 law schools in 42 states, according to Lowe. They work in legal areas including medical partnerships, tribal law, housing and so on.
Attorney Courtney Klus — a West Virginia University College of Law grad — immediately segued from her 2016 Equal Justice Works fellowship to a full-time job with Legal Aid of West Virginia. Her office is in Clarksburg, West Virginia, the seat of Harrison County and a city of roughly 16,000 residents, according to the latest available Census data.
