A Survey of Policy Responses to the Rural Attorney Shortage in the United States

Abstract

This chapter surveys the short history of policymakers’ and scholars’ attention to the rural lawyer shortage in the United States, discussing this phenomenon as one aspect of a burgeoning rural access-to-justice (A2J) crisis. A number of initiatives to narrow the rural-urban justice gap are currently afoot in the United States, including the expanded use of paralegals and various interventions based on artificial intelligence and other technologies. These, however, are beyond the scope of this chapter, which focuses on the rural attorney shortage. We categorize policy responses to that problem into several overlapping strands: (1) programs that provide financial incentives and other supports for lawyers to practice in rural locales; (2) programs that channel urban attorney resources to rural areas; and (3) programs focused on cultivating and expanding the pipeline to rural practice. Where possible, we provide status reports on initiatives in an effort to document and publicize their progress, thereby informing future policymaking. Finally, we discuss briefly the medium- to long-terms impacts that changes driven by the COVID-19 pandemic may have on the legal profession and delivery of legal services in rural America.

Keywords: access to justice, A2J, rural, legal deserts, attorney deserts, rural lawyer shortage, legal profession, legal education, legal geography, student debt, metrocentric, urban bias