Indiana State Bar Association leads new program to support rural attorneys

As the state continues to seek solutions to the ongoing attorney shortage, the Indiana State Bar Association has introduced an approach to directly support attorneys working in rural counties.

In July, the bar association will launch its first-ever Rural Practice Academy, an 11-month fellowship during which members can learn from legal professionals and one another how to build and sustain legal practices in small communities.

The concept stems from the work of the Commission on Indiana’s Legal Future, which was established in 2024 by the Indiana Supreme Court to develop strategies to address Indiana’s ongoing attorney shortage.

A subsection of the commission focused specifically on encouraging attorneys to practice in rural communities, where the number of attorneys available to serve residents is low.

“It came about as a specific effort to figure out, ‘How do we encourage, support and incentivize rural practice?’” said Joe Skeel, executive director of the bar association.

According to the Indiana Judicial Branch, 49 of the state’s 92 counties are considered “legal deserts,” defined as having fewer than one attorney available per 1,000 residents.

Warren Circuit Court Judge Hunter Reece chaired the commission’s Incentivizing Rural Practice work group, brainstorming several strategies to bring attorneys to these underserved communities and support them when they arrive.

One idea that came from the group, Reece said, was a legal incubator designed to support rural attorneys similarly to how attorneys in metropolitan firms might be supported. This included building a curriculum that would teach rural attorneys how to develop a successful business strategy for their firms. The incubator would also identify incentives and address challenges rural attorneys face, he said.

From there, the state bar association picked up the torch, and the Rural Practice Academy was born.

“I think a lot of barriers to attorneys moving out and practicing in rural communities is perhaps a misperception that there’s no need for attorneys, that there’s a lack of business and it would be difficult to be profitable, when in fact, the opposite is true,” Reece said.

Supporting the rural attorney

The fellowship will include both in-person and virtual experiences. Participants will work in a cohort, allowing attorneys to glean practical training while benefiting from peer-to-peer mentorship and networking opportunities.

The program is broken up into five in-person sessions and three virtual workshops, each with different focus topics, like how to build an ethical and efficient business plan, client engagement and marketing solutions, and diversifying one’s legal practice to serve clients across the community. Attorneys can earn about 50 continuing legal education hours through the fellowship.

Leaders modeled the program after the bar association’s long-standing Leadership Development Academy, Skeel said, which brings together 25 legal professionals for several leadership training sessions over five months.

The rural practice program will likely cap its number of participants at 25-30 attorneys, he said, depending on how many applicants it receives.

Leaders are accepting applications from attorneys in varying stages of their careers, from those just starting a rural practice to those several years in who might be looking to move back home, Skeel said. Ultimately, program leaders expect to see the most interest from attorneys who are from rural counties themselves, he said.

However, Reece also sees the fellowship as an opportunity for midsize law firms looking to expand their practice in rural communities to train attorneys who would work in those communities.

Working in a rural area has several attractions that many attorneys might not be aware of, said Reece, who’s part of the steering committee helping the bar association develop plans for the program. He said he expects the fellowship to emphasize these benefits.

“Frequently, small and solo practitioners can be very profitable in rural communities,” he said. “There’s often a lot less overhead. There’s also less competition, and rural communities are accustomed to paying the same prevailing wage as attorneys in urban areas, because the alternative model is for them to drive to an urban community and pay what the urban rates are.”

Attorneys practicing in rural communities often end up working as elected prosecutors and judges, Reece said, another draw to the career path. Stakeholders in these communities also tend to be incredibly supportive of local attorneys, providing more networking and career opportunities.

Why it’s needed

While several states across the country are developing ways to entice legal professionals to underserved communities, many plans are built to provide legal services to low-income clients, Skeel said. And while those are necessary, the bar association wants to build a program that supports what could be rural counties’ largest populations: the middle class.

“These folks don’t qualify for services based on their income. They make too much, but they also don’t make quite enough to hire an attorney sometimes” that would involve repeated travel expenses, he said.

“It is that middle-income level that is telling me, ‘Judge I have the money to pay. I just need [a local] attorney that will take it,’” Reece said.

One aspect of the state’s attorney shortage that the Commission on Indiana’s Legal Future discovered is a “graying” trend, in which older attorneys are beginning to step away from their professional duties without younger attorneys filling in the gaps.

This program could provide an opportunity for older attorneys in rural areas to mentor someone younger who could eventually take over their practice, he said.

“A lot of these attorneys that are retiring, they’ve taken care of families for generations … and they tell me, ‘I just want an attorney to take over these people,’” Reece said

Members of the committee developing the fellowship say they hope this program will show that rural communities offer plenty of mentorship opportunities.

If the program “doesn’t provide the tools for [participating attorneys], it will provide them mentorship or resources where they can find what they need in order to be successful in a rural community or starting their own firm,” said Hannah Brady, an associate attorney at Indianapolis-based Hume Smith Geddes Green & Simmons LLP and member of the steering committee.

The bar association projects that the academy will cost about $80,000 a year to run with a minimum of 12 participants. Skeel said the organization has money in reserves to cover that, but program leaders are working to pool outside support. So far, the program has received $25,000 from data analytics organization LexisNexis and $25,000 from the bar association’s Solo and Small Firm Conference group for this year’s programming.

Skeel said the bar association is seeking funding from other national companies and endowment grants from the American Bar Association because building nationwide support will allow the academy to thrive.

“That’s going to be the key to its long-term success … having these financial partners who have a belief in the importance of access to justice,” Skeel said.

He said he hopes the fellowship can serve as a pilot for other states interested in building their own programs to support rural attorneys.•