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Incentivizing Attorneys to Work in the Legal Deserts of Rural America

Sam Holzschuh

Summary

  • More than 40 percent of all counties in the United States have fewer than one lawyer for every 1,000 residents—a metric that the American Bar Association uses to identify so-called “legal deserts.”
  • Both North and South Dakota provide annual stipends for attorneys who practice in qualified counties.
  • The Illinois State Bar Association Rural Practice Associate Fellows Program places an associate in a rural law firm for a one-year commitment in exchange for a $10,000 stipend.
  • The most stubborn obstacle to comprehensive incentives is policymakers who find supporting lawyers difficult to overcome; however, it may be just as difficult to overestimate the value added to a rural community by an attorney.
Incentivizing Attorneys to Work in the Legal Deserts of Rural America
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There is an access to justice problem in rural America.

More than 40 percent of all counties and county-equivalents in the United States have fewer than one lawyer for every 1,000 residents—a metric that the American Bar Association uses to identify so-called “legal deserts.” Sydney Einarson Bata knows this well: she’s a shareholder at Einarson Law Firm in Grafton, North Dakota. Grafton is in Walsh County, where only 13 lawyers lived in 2020. Bata said this disproportion comes at a cost.

“It's going to be the lower-income people that are hurting, and that's a miscarriage of justice,” Bata said. “If we let people just gravitate, the more professional people gravitate towards our bigger cities. It will leave the rest of us out of it.”

Researchers have not concluded a cause of legal deserts, but the data makes one thing clear: big cities attract lawyers. New York City alone hosts nearly 10 percent of all lawyers in the United States. Responding to this trend, several states in rural America have innovated methods to draw attorneys, especially new attorneys, into these legal deserts.

The Dakota Method to Recruit Lawyers

The most progressive approach can be found in the Dakotas. Both North and South Dakota provide annual stipends for attorneys who practice in qualified counties. The attorney must live and practice in the eligible community for five years and be licensed to practice in the state. The programs were established via legislation, and each is funded by a collection of interested parties.

In 2013, South Dakota was the first state to enact legislation targeted at recruiting attorneys to rural areas. Incentive payments are funded by a combined effort of the state’s judicial branch (50 percent), the state bar association (15 percent), and the county (35 percent) that hosts the lawyer. Participants receive a single $12,513 payment each year, with a total benefit of $62,568 in five years. To be eligible, counties must have a population of less than 10,000 residents, and the state court system, which administers the program, evaluates whether there is a need for attorneys in the rural county.

North Dakota’s program started in 2021 and was modeled after South Dakota’s legislation. The difference is that participants receive $9,000 each year for a total benefit of $45,000 in five years, and counties must have a population of less than 16,000 residents.

Bata was the first lawyer approved to participate in the North Dakota program. She graduated from the University of North Dakota School of Law in 2020. She practices in Grafton, her hometown of 4,000 residents, and the county seat of Walsh County, which has 10,300 residents, according to census estimates. Because she already lived and worked in a rural community, Bata was proactive when the program looked poised for approval in the North Dakota legislature.

“When I knew this was coming out, I talked with the city of Grafton that I grew up in,” Bata said. “The city council agreed that once the program started up, they would jump in. It worked out really well.” But legislation of this kind is unique to the Dakotas. Policymakers are sensitive to the question of whether taxpayers should supplement the income of attorneys.

“I think there’s that narrative that lawyers are obviously all rich or whatever,” said Greg Sattizahn, state court administrator for South Dakota. “It just makes it more of a political discussion.”

This policy concern stalled efforts in 2024 to recreate the Dakota programs in Wyoming and Iowa. Art Washut, a Republican representative in Wyoming, is co-chair of the state’s joint judiciary committee. “[A]t least for now, the idea of government provid[ing] financial support to make a local attorney available in small town Wyoming has not gained traction,” Mr. Washut said.

Privately Funded Programs to Recruit Lawyers

The political baggage of taxpayer-funded programs has left private organizations in some states to carry the load. The Illinois State Bar Association administers the Rural Practice Associate Fellows Program, which places an associate in a rural law firm for a one-year commitment in exchange for a $10,000 stipend, paid half at the beginning and half at the conclusion of the one-year fellowship.

“The benefit to the firm is that the fellow will probably be more able to accept something that’s more comfortable for the firm to pay because the Fellow knows that they’re getting this additional money out of the gate,” Wawrzynek said.

Law firms must apply for participation and be in qualifying counties. An associate can participate only once and must work in private practice. The program has placed 32 associates in its life.

Two of this year’s associate fellows are Callah Wright and Austin Willis. Wright practices in Mt. Vernon, an Illinois town of about 14,000 residents, and grew up on a farm a 30-minute car ride north in Salem, a town of 7,000 residents.

“I wanted to work in the St. Louis area, but I really liked this firm in Mt. Vernon,” Wright said. “The stipend makes it where I get paid about the same as I would have in the St. Louis area in the jobs I was looking at.”

Willis practices in Wilmington, a town of about 5,500 residents, and grew up 15 minutes away in Essex, a town of 800 residents and Wilmington High School’s rival. Willis said that when he first started law school at the University of Iowa, he thought he would practice in Chicago—where the number of lawyers is more than double those in every other Illinois county combined.

“I had the notion that a lot of people do,” Willis said. “You’re in downtown Chicago, you’re wearing expensive suits. You feel important. You make a lot of money. But being from a small town, I found that I feel more comfortable here. And the incentive makes it darn competitive.”

Private programs are dependent on fundraising, though, which can limit their longevity. In 2024, the Montana Legal Services Association sunset its loan repayment assistance program to focus its resources on other projects.

Loan Repayment Assistance

The Nebraska State Bar Association (NSBA) administers a state-funded loan assistance program for rural attorneys through the Rural Practice Initiative. Sam Clinch, associate executive director of the NSBA, said any attorney entering private practice in a rural community (a population of 15,000 or less) is eligible to participate. An attorney can receive an annual maximum of $6,000 toward loan payments and an aggregate maximum of $42,000.

“What we’re seeing is that student loan debt is just a real barrier for students to go out to rural Nebraska,” Clinch said. “If we could increase funding to help them with student loan debt, I think that it’s very helpful.”

The Challenges of Legal Deserts

Legal deserts present clear challenges to access to justice in rural America, but the same challenges have catalyzed innovation in those same communities. The most stubborn obstacle to comprehensive incentives is policymakers who find supporting lawyers difficult to overcome. But it may be just as difficult to overestimate the value added to a rural community by an attorney.

“Everybody needs a lawyer,” Bata said. “People getting divorced need a lawyer. Everybody needs a will. You have to do probate. And when those lawyers aren’t accessible—when they’re in bigger areas—you run the risk of people just not having access to that.”

For more information about local incentive programs, contact your state bar association.

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