Are you from a rural area; want to move home to the rural area; or never lived in a rural area, but want to practice law and live the rural life? Maybe you love hunting, fishing and hiking. Or you like the pace and values of rural life. Whatever your motivation, some planning can help you get ready for that experience and more successfully launch your rural law career.
I was inspired to write this after reading “The Rural Lawyer: How To Incentivize Rural Law Practice and Help Small Communities Thrive” by Hannah Haksgaard. “The Rural Lawyer” reviews the results and lessons learned from 10 years of South Dakota’s Rural Attorney Recruitment Program. Haksgaard makes many great observations about rural practice that I will incorporate into some recommendations, along with some of my own observations.
First, some disclaimers. My goal here is to address general preparation for likely rural practice areas to make your launch into rural practice successful in the early years. Your own interests and situation will vary. You may have an “in” at a rural law firm or government agency that will focus your interests.
The place you want to relocate to will have characteristics that will drive your decisions about coursework. Water law and oil and gas law may be mission-critical in some areas and not in others. My recommendations are more general.
The other point is that your time and capacity for courses in law school are limited. You will find out that much of successful law practice is learning as your practice demands it.
Here are courses to consider if wanting to practice in rural areas:
Contracts: You probably were required to take contracts in law school, but it’s definitely a necessary topic for rural lawyers as contracts are ubiquitous and rural businesses are not as likely to have employees specialized in contracts. Consider also taking a course in contract drafting, which goes beyond theory into very specific strategies to communicate expectations and avoid problems.
Running a law practice: Being a rural lawyer requires one to be self-starting in many cases. Because there isn’t an abundance of well-paying salaried jobs, it can be a challenge. However, Haksgaard noted, “The beauty of encouraging the rural practice of law is that these young professionals do not need to find a new job — they can create one.” As a potential rural lawyer, consider taking courses that prepare you for starting and running your own law practice. The courses have different titles, but certainly anything about the business of law or law practice management would be helpful. At Purdue Global Law School (PGLS), we have Modern Law Practice as well as Virtual Law Practice as offerings. Many of the participants in the study had to present to the county commissioners for funding, take that lesson, and look for classes or extracurricular activities where you would get practice doing presentations.
Criminal law: All the participants in Haksgaard’s study did criminal law work, at least early in their careers. One-half did prosecution work. To be clear, many rural areas have part-time prosecutors, so prosecution was not the sole practice of most of the participants in the study. You probably will already take criminal law and criminal procedure, but consider additional clinical, externship or simulation courses in the criminal law arena to build your confidence and competence. As it implicates Constitutional rights similarly to criminal law, it’s worth mentioning that mental health commitments comprised some of the participants’ practice.
Trial and dispute resolution skills: Whether you do civil or criminal work, you will benefit from practical skills courses such as trial advocacy, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and negotiation. It goes without saying (but I will say) that you need to pay close attention to your writing and research skills.
The “Big Three” of civil practice plus bonus courses: Major civil practice areas featured in The Rural Lawyer were probate, estate planning and real estate. The year’s caselaw update at the Agricultural and Rural Law Institute in Minnesota bears that out with disputes about all of the above. Given the reliance of rural areas on small businesses, nonprofits and churches, knowledge of business formation through courses like Business Organizations and Business Planning would be helpful as well. So many people need the services of a family law attorney. If you are interested in this work, consider a family law course. PGLS requires our family law course, but it’s an elective at most schools. Depending on the location, it may make sense to apply to legal aid if you want to do primarily family law work.
Rural specific experiences: If you are lucky, your law school will have a Rural Law Practice course like PGLS does. If not, look for opportunities such as independent study or externships to gain additional experience. You should also look into programs at your school or where you want to practice to see if they have stipends for you to intern in rural areas. If you don’t have a rural background, it’s important to experience rural life prior to making a shift. Even if you have experienced rural living, if you are looking at a new community, it’s important to become known as soon as you can to start building relationships. “Rural” covers many different situations, so one size does not fit all. My experience in a county of 30,000 living outside of any town, but close to an interstate, could be quite different from someone living in a county of 10,000 far from an interstate or someone in a town of 5,000. Rural areas are more diverse than the public perception of them, but it’s also important to know they can be quite different from one another.
While my goal here was to give an idea of the courses to take to support you in your first years as a rural law practitioner, remember that with a good foundation, you can continue to learn and grow once you are in practice. Find a good mentor and set aside time for professional development so you can best meet the needs of your community.
Shaun Jamison is the associate dean of academic affairs at Purdue Global Law School, the first completely online law school. His interests include the intersection of law and technology, modern law practice skills and rural access to justice.
