Best Cities for New Lawyers
Law student jobs - I
met with a lawyer a couple of weeks ago in a small town about two hours
outside of the Twin Cities. Our conversation turned to operating a law
firm in a small town and the lawyer told me two things I probably knew
but did not really appreciate. One was a complaint about how difficult
it is to attract new lawyers to join law firms in rural areas. The other
was the lawyer’s prediction that in the next ten years, half the
lawyers in her quarter of the state were going to retire from the
practice of law. Law student jobs - That prediction probably is not
unique to Minnesota. New lawyers unable to find a job in a major
American city may want to broaden their job searches beyond their local
beltways. There are many benefits to practicing in a smaller
community. First off, there is plenty of work to do. All those farms you
pass as you drive that two-lane road into the country? That farmland is
worth several thousand dollars an acre in many areas. Those farm
families need estate plans, contracts, and business advice. There are
teachers, small business owners, bankers, and other professionals as
well. The folk in small towns sometimes get divorced, commit the
occasional DWI, and get in car accidents. They need local lawyers and
they do not want to pay for some lawyer from the city to drive out to
the rural courthouse to represent them. They need trusted advisors they
can form life-long professional relationships with. That could be you. Not sure what area of practice is best for you? In
small towns, many lawyers are generalists. They take a variety of cases
and get experience in multiple areas. Eager to get inside a courtroom?
You may get more opportunities in a small town than you would as an
associate in the big city. The economics can work as well. The cost of housing
may be less than half of what you would find in a major city. Your
mortgage could be so small that even with your law school debt you would
have less overall debt than you would have living in the city. I know, you could never give up the city. You would miss the theater, even though you only go once or twice a year. Where would you shop? (Although you do most of your shopping on-line nowadays.) A small town only has one movie theater! (Of course, you stream most of the movies you see through Netflix.) These
fears of cultural isolation may be just that—fears. The lawyer I met
with told me that she and her colleagues are simply more intentional
about going to the city for entertainment and probably do so more than
city-folk. Many people in the city think nothing of traveling three
hours each way in the summer to go up to the family cabin; rural
residents just do a “reverse commute” to attend sporting events,
concerts, and other big city attractions. I have a client who lives 2½
hours from Minneapolis and has seasons tickets to the Minnesota Twins. |