Rural Iowans are losing access to legal services as aging attorneys retire and close their small practices, leaving a void that younger lawyers aren’t rushing to fill.
Hoping to stem what soon could become a crisis, the University of Iowa College of Law has been working with the Iowa State Bar Association (ISBA) on a program that encourages law students to practice in rural areas. The summer Rural Clerkship Program provides opportunities for law students to work at rural or small-town practices during their summers in law school.
“The idea is to introduce them to small-town legal work and small-town culture to see if it fits,” says Philip Garland, a lawyer in Garner, Iowa, who chairs the ISBA’s Rural Practice Committee. “We need to start bringing more lawyers to small-town Iowa and stop the exodus.”
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The program, which also includes law schools at Drake University and Creighton University, placed 10 to 12 law students in rural or small-town practice its first summer in 2012. Participation has increased in the last five years, with an average of more than 30 interested applicants each summer.
Garland credits UI law student Kelsey Beenken with getting the program off the ground by inviting him to discuss the Rural Practice Committee’s efforts at the UI law school.
“I’ve always been interested in working in a small town,” says Beenken, a 2013 UI College of Law graduate and native of Eagle Grove, Iowa. “I like the sense of community, and you can make more of a difference in a small town.”
Beenken, who currently resides in Britt, Iowa, found her way to her practice after her second year of law school when she was the first placement in the Rural Clerkship Program. The clerks work with the small-town practices of established attorneys in rural communities during the summer, providing practical legal experience and exposing them to career options they may not have considered.
“People who aren’t from small towns don’t even see small-town practice as an option,” Beenken says.
Rural America is facing a growing crisis because there aren’t enough attorneys to provide necessary legal services for the people who live there. Britt has only three small firms. The dearth of lawyers creates an access-to-justice issue, forcing residents to drive to other towns for basic legal services, such as selling a house, drafting a contract, or probating a will.
Beenken says that because many rural residents are elderly, traveling long distances to work with far-off attorneys is even more inconvenient.
Garland also points out that attorneys are a vital part of a small town’s civic life, volunteering on local boards and providing hundreds of hours of pro bono legal services to town governments and nonprofit organizations.
“Once people realize you can get jobs in rural Iowa more easily than you can in Chicago, maybe more students will be interested,” says Beenken.