The end of the rural lawyer is, thankfully, in sight.
I should start by saying that it is not from any personal prejudice against those who practice in rural areas that I use “thankfully”. Rather, it is an expression of the relief law students must feel as the idea of practicing in a rural area is, apparently, unappealing to the vast majority of law students. Indeed, it seems to have been for some time now. A quick search finds numerous articles lamenting the lack of enthusiasm amongst potential articling students from 2012, 2014 and even to this day in 2016. As an increasing number of rural lawyers reach the age of retirement, the lack of replacements for them spells a slow end to the rural lawyer.
Yet there is still a pressing need for rural law.
It is self evident that geographical location does not eliminate the legal issues that arise for an individual. So what replaces the future rural lawyer?
Imagine sitting in your office in Tofino, BC – a town of 1,900 – waiting for your client. They arrive promptly, and you greet them warmly. Offering them a seat, you walk them through your intake forms, deal with their questions, provide reassurance about their concerns and then see them to the door with a friendly smile and a handshake. As they leave, you take a moment to collect yourself before returning to your desk. A desk which is physically located in downtown Victoria.
A wistful dream, or a future closer than you might imagine?
Two recent trends provide good reason for hope for the provision of legal services to rural communities, and neither relies on reversing the trend of students preference for larger cities.
First, the ever increasing rise of rural internet connectivity. More and more small towns are opting to become their own Internet Service Providers. These towns install fibre-optic connections for their entire population. For $57 a month, they can receive speeds of 1,000 megabits. By comparison, Kamloops currently tops out at 150 megabits for $80 a month. The capacity of these networks to allow for increasingly large videos and images to be transferred is just barely beginning to be utilized. Even those that don’t are benefiting from Government initiatives aimed at providing high speed internet to rural communities.
Second, with the launch of Virtual Reality (“VR”) hardware. The recent launch of the consumer models of the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive have brought a high quality experience to the early adopter market. Currently, video games make the most use of these VR devices but the exploitation of VR is just beginning. At Virginia Tech they have created a virtual reality room [worth the watch!], which can be shared between several individuals. Each sees the exact same thing, and can see each other. Within the room, there is virtually no limit to what they may experience together.
The rural lawyer of the future? Well, they need not be rural at all.
With the right amount of bandwidth, this room could be shared with any other room (and any other participant) at any range. So not only can that office in Tofino be used by a lawyer in Victoria, but also one from Vancouver, Calgary or Toronto. Indeed, multiple lawyers could share (at different times) the same office in a small town, bringing a diverse range of experience and knowledge to small towns throughout Canada. Furthermore, the VR room is able to replicate any setting. So your client meetings could happen in a professional office, a farmhouse kitchen or on the beaches of Bali! You could tailor the office to each client, and locale, without any additional cost. Even if cost prevents the implementation of a VR room in every single small town in Canada to begin with, the VR rooms could easily become enough in local hub communities so as to improve access to professionals (such as lawyers, doctors or engineers) for hundreds of thousands of rural clients.
So in short, rejoice – the demise of the rural lawyer is nigh and the as for the future? Well it has never been brighter for rural law.
Thank you for your post Scott! I appreciate your bold perspective, and admire you for posting such a thought provoking piece. As you already know, my views of the rural law practice differ a great deal.
I can agree that living in a rural community is not everyone’s preferred lifestyle choice, and that many law students do not plan to work in rural communities. However, there are many people who do want to live in rural communities. Its stands to reason, that among those people are skilled and intelligent citizens who want to be lawyers (like me).
This brings to question why else might young lawyers not be practicing in rural communities?
One reason that comes to mind, is that many rural lawyers are sole practitioners who may not have the resources to hire an articling student. Whereas, bigger firms may be better positioned to take on the expense and time commitment involved in training multiple students.
Another explanation could be the law school admission process. It seems that law schools are shifting away from holistic approaches, in favour of entirely GPA and LSAT based systems. A holistic approach provides the opportunity to bring in qualified candidates for rural communities.
Ultimately, I think accommodating legal service gaps in rural areas comes down to the law of averages. If the majority of accepted applicants are from urban areas, and the majority of jobs are provided by big firms, then the majority of students will gravitate back to the city.
My personal experience with rural clients, is that many want to give their business to a lawyer who is invested in their community, and understands their particular needs. I believe people in rural communities deserve that kind of service, in the same way urban clients do, and it is a reasonable goal for the legal profession to achieve.
However, VR technology would be extremely valuable in remote areas. Particularly in Northern Canada, where there are sparse populations and severe geographical barriers to obtaining face-to-face legal services. Once internet connections improve in the North, VR would enable remote people to obtain legal services with a human element, which would be a significant improvement.
I have to agree with Claire. From my discussions with rural lawyers, clients want to deal with lawyers who are part of the community. While I find the possibilities that VR could create interesting, I think a better solution lies in finding ways to encourage articling in small/rural communities. I know that VR proponents across the tech field are very adamant that VR offers a different experience than Skype or other video type conferencing. However in the end, I always come back to the question of how different is it? And if that type of experience is what rural clients are looking for, why is video conferencing etc. not more popular now? The answer seems to lie in what Claire has touched on: clients what the interpersonal experience and community connection that a lawyer living in the community can offer.
This is such a great discussion. Thank you, Scott, for a very thought-provoking post. I think the technology you describe offers opportunities in the other direction, too: a lawyer physically located in Tofino, Nelson or Bella Bella could use it to meet with clients in urban centres. There is a lot that is attractive about this. Law practices in small communities have lower overhead (for things like rent and employee salaries), the cost of living is lower, and they charge lower rates. That puts them potentially in a great position to compete with city-based law firms, if they have the right expertise and can do good quality work. My sense is that many people want to live in bigger urban areas in their 20s, but often like the idea of relocating to a smaller community with a gentler pace of life and lower expenses when their lives are in a different stage (often when they have kids). I could see this being an amazing opportunity for a 30-something lawyer who’s gained some sophisticated experience in practice in Vancouver: – move out to a small town, and take some of the work with you! And, in addition to that, you’d have the opportunity to develop the interpersonal, community-rooted type of practice that Claire and Kristin talk about with clients in your new rural home.
I also think it’s true that an important barrier to new lawyers getting into practice in small towns is the lack of an “on-ramp.” It’s hard for a small solo practice to take on an articling student, no matter how much they might need someone to be a successor in the future. I would like to connect this to our coming discussion in our Friday meeting of legal education and training for practice. Would a one-year educational programme focused on training in practical legal skills as an alternative to articling – along the lines of Ontario’s LPP – be part of the solution?
Scott, check out this post on the Law2035 blog at Calgary – it points out that there are regulatory and “ABS” obstacles to virtual law offices: http://law2035.ucalgaryblogs.ca/2016/09/29/virtual-headaches-dancing-on-the-electronic-highway/