Look around rural America and you’ll see small towns losing population and suffering brain drain. Look closer, and you’ll notice lawyers are aging and not being replaced by new graduates. Doing nothing is not an option, rural residents deserve legal representation. States are now experimenting with policies to incentivize rural law practice, but ten years ago, South Dakota was first. Based on interviews with rural lawyers, The Rural Lawyer shows how rural incentive programs can work, what it is like to begin a law career in rural America, and how rural lawyers can help small communities thrive.

Once, lawyers worked in small towns and rural communities across America. Abraham Lincoln, America’s most famous rural lawyer, even rose to the presidency. But today, rural areas have insufficient numbers, and as existing rural lawyers age the shortage gets worse. These legal deserts leave rural clients without lawyers and rural communities without law-educated individuals to serve as elected officials, volunteers, and community leaders.

Because the South Dakota Rural Attorney Recruitment Program requires local governments to partially fund the stipend, rural lawyers had to seek permission from local governments. This chapter focuses on the process of getting local government approval and actually moving to town, including how lawyers obtained housing and office space.

When the Rural Attorney Recruitment Program participants moved to their rural communities, they hoped to be welcomed with open arms. It turns out that acceptance was not always easy. This chapter walks through feelings of acceptance from local community members and local lawyers. It also considers whether new lawyers could count on local community members bringing legal work to the new lawyers.

The first year or two of rural practice has been financially fraught for lawyers in the Rural Attorney Recruitment Program, but earnings have steadily increased for most lawyers. This chapter considers the financial position of the lawyers, looking at hourly rates, salary, benefits, government pay, and pay structure. It also considers the importance of the stipend and how lawyers used the stipend, concluding that the stipend was crucial for most lawyers.

Seventy-five percent of the lawyers in South Dakota’s Rural Attorney Recruitment Program were still in the rural practice of law at the ten-year anniversary of the program. This chapter considers why participants stayed or left. For most participants, the work was good, the pay was satisfactory, and the lifestyle was desirable. Not all lawyers were happy, and the chapter discusses whether the stipend could be modified to prevent further departures, though concludes that the program has been a success.

Thirty-two attorneys joined the Rural Attorney Recruitment Program in South Dakota. This chapter explores their backgrounds and why they chose to practice law in rural areas. Beginning with these lawyers’ childhoods, the chapter explains the characteristics of the rural lawyers and explores which characteristics made lawyers more likely to stay.

Rural communities benefit when they have local lawyers. Lawyers do volunteer work in communities by serving on boards, putting on events, and in many other ways. Lawyers also volunteer in another important way, by providing free legal services within their communities. While the pro bono work done by rural lawyers cannot close the justice gap, it helps many individual clients. Lawyers also help whole communities, making rural communities more vibrant and resilient. While local governments spend money on lawyers, those governments also financially benefit from having local attorneys.

Rural attorneys are sometimes generalists, but often specialize in a few areas of law. Almost all of the attorneys do criminal legal work, either part-time prosecution, part-time criminal defense, and sometimes both. Lawyers also maintain significant private practices doing transactional and litigation work. This chapter surveys the areas of law practiced and also considers the conflicts that arise for rural lawyers.

Introducing the rural lawyer shortage through its impact on rural America, the introduction makes the case that rural areas matter and policy responses are justified to help rural America.

Mentorship is one of the most important facets of new legal practice, and the importance of mentorship is elevated in rural areas where there are few mentors available. This chapter considers how new rural lawyers obtained mentorship and discusses particular challenges of mentorship for solo practitioners, in satellite offices, and in law firm offices. Relying on interviews from both mentors and mentees, this chapter makes clear the importance of good mentorship.

Many states have realized there is a shortage of lawyers in rural areas and have decided to improve legal access in rural communities. This chapter surveys the current approaches to increasing access to justice or access to lawyers in rural areas. South Dakota has the earliest and most robust program, and the origin of that program is shared in detail.