The Road Less Traveled – Is This For You?
Where have all the lawyers gone?
A student sought my advice recently about establishing a practice in a rural setting in an attempt to locate her practice in an area that was less saturated with lawyers. My advice to her was to concern herself less with the density of lawyers in a given area and more with a business plan that would succeed in the environment where she wished to start her practice. I tell students to consider first, what are your values and set your goals consistent with your values. Those goals should set the stage for where you establish your practice. For instance, if you value your heritage and close family contact, then establish your practice in proximity to your family and relatives. So when you start a family, or if you have established a family and went to law school later in life, you will have access to your loved ones so that grand parents and extended family can participate in your children’s lives. As you age, you will often find that you are the caretakers for your parents. Of course, you can relocate parents to your location, but it is far easier to keep them in place where they have established medical care providers and a network of established friends.
In the end, I don’t feel you should select the location based upon the density of lawyers as your primary consideration. Instead, I recommend you select your practice location based upon your values, ability to adapt and long-term goals. In making your choice, however, you may find some diversity in the range of options available to you. And when considering those options, rural vs urban choices offer quite distinct advantages and disadvantages.
One of my graduates recently visited me from Fargo, North Dakota. He told me that he had a client who said he had to drive two hours to find a good family law attorney for his divorce. The client told my grad that he had to drive that far because there were no lawyers remaining in the town where he came from and it necessitated a two hour drive to find a good lawyer. I have read about stories of rural areas and some urban areas where lawyers were aged and not being replaced or leaving those areas due to shifting demographics. As a result, a few are offering to pay off student debt if they move to those areas to establish their practices.
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/towns-paying-off-student-loan-debts/story?id=16543649
Under Niagara Falls’ plan, graduates who have earned a 2- or 4-year degree in the past two years can apply for up to $3,500 a year (for two years) towards repayment of their student loans. The same deal would be offered to graduate students. Graduates of Niagara University and Niagara County Community College will be targeted at first, though the city hopes eventually to recruit graduates from other parts of the country.
In rural Kansas, a similar experiment is underway.
Fifty counties in the state have established Rural Opportunity Zones (ROZs) authorized to offer one or both of the following financial incentives to new full-time residents: Kansas income tax waivers for up to five years and/or student loan repayments up to $15,000.
To be eligible for loan repayments, applicants must hold an associate’s, bachelor’s or post-graduate degree; must have an outstanding student loan balance; and must establish residency in a ROZ county.
To some, this may appear to be an attractive option. Indeed, they might choose to move to one of those areas. A recent issue of the ABA Journal was dedicated to rural practice options and that seems to be a popular topic in many blogs (now, including this one) as graduates look for employment options in a changing legal market. Certainly, this has appeal and I am not discouraging you from considering it.
In making your decision, there are other considerations at play. Recently, I heard someone say that there are some counties in Michigan where there isn’t an attorney under 65 years of age. With an aging attorney population and shifting demographics, you may want to consider establishing a rural practice as your best option. However, unless you have connections in those communities and are willing to reach out beyond the local municipal or village boundaries to market your practice, you may find it difficult to secure a strong business presence.
The population of attorneys, like the population in general, is aging and has its share of “baby boomers” who are looking towards retirement. Every issue of the Michigan Bar Journal has a list, “In Memorium” to recognize those members of the Bar who have passed away. Some months, that list is quite large and doesn’t include those attorneys who retire and those who are unable to continue practice due to physical infirmities. Many of those senior lawyers are looking for someone to take over their practice. In some instances, that is an opportunity to good to pass up. But be careful. If I were to relocate to an unfamiliar area and purchase a practice, I would speak with one of the local court clerks to see how they react when you discuss the reputation of that attorney. The court clerks are often the first to hear about financial distress, grievances, malpractice or attorneys who berate their subordinates.
Certain types of practices can be established with less concern with the location of that practice. Appellate practice is one example which would allow you to live anywhere you have good internet access. If you want to do criminal practice, you may find that you have to travel one or two hours a day to different circuits to maintain a viable practice based upon that area of law. Many say that you have to be a general practitioner in a rural area. I disagree. I know of a number of lawyers who run very successful specialized practices out of the mainstream of concentrations of attorneys. But they are very good at what they do, are very well organized and aggressively market their practice beyond their local reach.
If you think rural practice might be right for you, I would suggest you visit lawyers in that area to hear them out about the good, the bad and the ugly of solo practice in that area. But, don’t be dissuaded just because a seasoned veteran says you can’t make it as I truly believe you can make it almost anywhere. But try to discover as much as you can about the population, economy, unique opportunities that geographic placement might afford you. Do your homework before making your move. And be discriminating and careful as there are so many options available to locate your practice with the flexibility that technology affords solos today.