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| Elizabeth Garry |
Law students preparing to enter the workplace recognize the wisdom of this quote, and actively seek the elusive quality of work-life balance. This can be difficult in any profession involving service to others and with high stakes, where performing at a top level truly matters.
Nonetheless, it bears emphasizing that the balance of challenging work and rewarding relationships is an ultimate ideal, which so many of us strive to create. These two components should be addressed in recruiting lawyers into our profession, particularly when working on pipeline issues related to legal deserts.
Most law schools place emphasis on extracurricular engagements, designed in part to foster teamwork and camaraderie, while learning legal skills. Our placement and recruitment programs should similarly be built with both prongs, the work and the fun, well in mind. Connection counts, particularly in our profession, which involves positions that often revolve around quality communication and relationships.
Our New York state courts have recently embarked upon addressing the critical shortage of lawyers in our rural counties by building pipelines, that is, paths for current and prospective lawyers to find and build careers in places where they are so sorely needed, to enhance access to justice across our state. These two programs were designed with relationships and connection uppermost in mind and priority.
Recruiting Lawyers
Rural Ready is a job posting website launched in partnership with the New York State Bar Association and Albany Law School, seeking to promote available opportunities across upstate New York.[1] Unlike most job postings, however, these are accompanied by the contact information for one or more local ambassadors.
In each participating county, lawyers have volunteered to serve as a guide, a welcome wagon, so to speak — albeit perhaps without any apple pie. An interested party from outside the region can reach out to ask about the community: questions concerning the real estate market, local schools, whether there are good restaurants and so on.
The local ambassadors might make themselves available for a chat over coffee or lunch to help introduce potential newcomers to what makes their home a good home.
Recruiting Law Students
Our Rural Pathways summer internship program for law students similarly emphasizes both the work and the fun.
In seeking to recruit aspiring lawyers, the need for a robust workplace rotation is fairly obvious, and each county that has stepped up to participate has established a series of placements designed to expose students to a full array of experiences, including criminal and family law, transactional work, municipal service, and service to disadvantaged clients in various settings.
The particular placements vary from county to county — in both place and duration — as these are built from the ground up, entirely reliant on local engagement.
Critically, each local community is further asked to be fully engaged and proactive in welcoming the students. In addition to the workplace rotation, it is expected that an array of social events will be planned and scheduled, to highlight the sweet essence of our small towns, our state's beating heart.
It is not just the outdoor activities — the hiking, biking, boating, fishing and the like; the friendly daily connections are what keep small towns strong. People look out for each other, and as you go about your daily activities, you will be greeted warmly by people who become familiar over time.
Many of our rural places are gems hiding in plain sight. When you first see open space, it may look empty, but the history is deep and the future is wide open.
Tips on Prioritizing Local Engagement in Pipeline Programs
In designing these programs, I had my own life experience as a guide. I moved to central New York, to the very rural Chenango County, upon graduating from law school in order to take a two-year judicial clerkship position, reasoning that the role was worth what might be two lonely and solitary years.
Most of that first year was indeed quite lonely, and I felt my square peg status keenly. But, before the year was up, I made a friend and then soon forged whole circuits of good relationships, the kind that I knew were making me better and stronger — in other words, friends worth keeping. And romance, that essential connection most of us crave so deeply!
In recruiting new lawyers and new neighbors, we cannot expect them to wait a full year before experiencing the joys of small-town life. It is ever so easy to be busy in our own established circles, but I urge the people in our local communities to reach out, invite these newcomers and potential newcomers along to their fun summer activities, engage with them, and actively show them what makes these places great.
There are many ways to engage newcomers. The guiding principle is to reflect on the uniqueness of your home and immerse these students in the community. They, after all, are not just looking for a job — they are looking for their new home!
Our small towns are indeed great places to live and work. What we do not always excel at is sharing and showing that. But the rewards run both ways. I know that the members of the 22 counties that hosted and welcomed students this past summer felt the joy of that welcome, as did the students. There is a special satisfaction in sharing wisdom and lived experience with the bright members of the next generation of legal counsel, and learning from them as well.
New York is far from alone in suffering from and seeking to address rural legal deserts. Indeed, this is a national problem. Our rural programs are only entering their third year, yet my office has spoken with other states about how they can replicate our Rural Pathways program. There are opportunities for every rural community to build their own pathway and showcase their hometowns.
Here in New York, we are hoping to do more and better next summer. Ever onward, excelsior!
I close with great thanks to the leaders of our state courts, both in the administration and in each participating county, for jumping in to help solve the legal desert crisis, with strength, pride and purpose.
In little ways each day we can make our world at least somewhat better, together. I am sure of it! And what better way to spend our days than trying?
Elizabeth A. Garry is the presiding justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Appellate Division, Third Judicial Department.
The opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of their employer, its clients, or Portfolio Media Inc., or any of its or their respective affiliates. This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal advice.
[1] Rural Ready can be accessed at www.NYRuralReady.com.
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