South Dakota lures lawyers to rural areas with annual subsidies - ABA Journal

South Dakota lures lawyers to rural areas with annual subsidies - ABA Journal

What an odd story, but what, in some ways, a disturbing one. 

The "country lawyer" is such an institution that the use of the term is nearly a joke, and frankly fairly abused.  When people claim it sincerely, you really have to wonder.  Having said that, for the entire course of American history, we've had small town rural lawyers. Some, such as Abraham Lincoln, have been pretty significant to our history.  

Now that seems to be passing away.  Why?  My suspicion is the aggressive focus on money in the law that came about in the 1980s has a lot to do with it.  About that time, the profession really started focusing on riches, and lawyers also started being portrayed as rich.  Consider that early depictions of lawyers:  

• Atticus Finch, small town southern lawyer who actually takes produce and poultry in payment, on occasion.
• Paul Biegler, defense lawyer in Anatomy of a Murder who has exactly one client, who stiffs him on a bill.
• Parnell McCarthy, washed up lawyer in Anatomy of a Murder who still has abilities, but has pretty obviously been struggling with booze for years.
• Barney Greenwald, big city lawyer who may, or may not, have made a lot of money in the law, but who is a wounded Marine Corps pilot at the time of his assignment as court martial defense in The Caine Mutiney.
• Frank Galvin, an alcoholic lawyer who is just hanging on until he gets one significant case and dries out, in The Verdict.
• Mickey Morrissey, Galvins' sober friend, who is also an attorney, but whom doesn't appear to be rich, in The Verdict.
• The Judge in The Man In The Gray Flannel Suit, who is portrayed as the singularly decent representative of the law, and who has a tiny office in a tiny town.
• Chief Judge Dan Hayword in Judgement at Nuremberg. Same sort of deal.

What do all of these depictions have in common? Well, nothing in them has much to do with wealth.  Indeed, some of them are the antithesis of that.  In at least two of these depictions the lawyers are decent, hardworking, sober men, who are basically living hand to mouth.   While movie and literary portrayals of lawyers shouldn't inspire somebody to become one, they do.  Anyone inspired by any of these depictions wouldn't have been inspired by the thought of getting rich.

That all changed with the claptrap of L.A. Law. Thereafter, lawyers came to be seen as wealthy and glamorous.  L. A. Law, of course, came up in the Gordon Geco era, and it shares a lot of the same basic style of portrayal.  And it isn't alone.  After L. A. Law we had Boston Legal and Alley McBeal, amongst others, all of which portray suited up lawyers with plenty of cash.

That sort of portrayal is far from accurate, which may explain the significant level of lawyer discontent that exists right now. But beyond that, it might also say something about the people being attracted to the law, if they found these portrayals attractive.  And that is only made worse by the unrealistic portrayals of the law given out by law schools and professional organizations, such as the ABA.  The ABA obsesses on the starting pay of "Big Law" associates, as if that even matters to most lawyers.  By focusing so relentlessly on it, they make it matter to some.

But that doesn't mean that the nuts and bolts of the law have moved into town and into high finance. They remain out in the small towns and cities.  If the lawyers don't go out there, that's not only bad for those localities, it's bad for everyone, including the law.

Epilog:

NPR's news show, Talk of the Nation (soon to be a thing of the past) recently ran a show on this topic, and on a similar problem with doctors no longer going to rural areas.  The person who investigated the topic was not optimistic about South Dakota's efforts.