Forget Nebraska, the Gold's in South Dakota

From the Wall-Street Journal:

There is at least one region of the country actively seeking more lawyers: rural South Dakota.

According to this piece in the Argus Leader, the State Bar of South Dakota is launching Project Rural Practice to try to lure more attorneys to the state’s less populated regions.

“A lot of our rural attorneys are nearing retirement and looking for someone to carry on the practice,” state bar president Pat Goetzinger told the Argus Leader.

Yee-haw.

Of course, the University of South Dakota still spits out eighty new lawyers every single year, and even though eighty plus people pass the bar every year, the state is only projected to have 53 openings per year 'til 2015.

And let's not forget that in South Dakota, wages are among the lowest in the country. It's fine, I suppose, if you went to a state school out there, but I wouldn't expect a William Mitchell, Hamline, or U. of Denver grad to service their private school debt on 29k a year.

And don't ignore that there are only two cities in the entire state above 30k in population. A town of 5,000 needs probably ten to fifteen attorneys, max. There might be a lot of older attorneys retiring in rural South Dakota, but my hunch is that many of them may supplement their income. You could probably fill all of rural South Dakota's needs with just the unemployed Cooley grads from 2010 alone.

Rural life actually appeals to a lot of people. It's safe, quiet, low-stress. In a rural county, you probably know the clerk and the judge personally and unless they hate you, your life should be easier. In many rural counties, they'll protect you and your clients from out-of-county forces if they can. Lot of perks, but I'm highly highly skeptical that the opportunity are really there, or that if they are, they're being sopped up immediately by the spillover from the (relatively) nearby law schools.

If there really are openings, there's no need to spend a dime. Just run a Symplicity advert for the twenty closest law schools. You'll have ten applications the next time you check your email, and at least five will be somewhat-impressive.