Erin Crocker says when she told a fellow law student she was taking a job in Smithers, B.C., he tried to console her by saying she could “probably” get back to the city in a couple of years. It didn’t occur to him that someone would, with knowledge aforethought, consider working in a smaller or remote community if there was any possibility of embracing the bright lights of the city.
But there are a whole lot of reasons to work outside city limits, Crocker says. While the local ski hill and mountain bike trails (and a clause in her contract that allows her to take the morning off to go skiing) were a draw for her, she also revels in the fact that as a relatively new call she’s able to take the lead on complex cases – she’s worked on corporate files, even done some patent law, along with the more usual cases that come to general practice firms.
Susan McGrath, a sole-practice lawyer from Cochrane, Ont., told a CBA panel discussion on rural and remote communities at the Mid-Winter meeting of CBA Council in Ottawa that she’s a perfect example of the greying of the bar in Ontario – she’s been in practice for 35 years. That’s 35 perfectly satisfactory years from the sounds of things. She started out by talking about how nice it is to raise a family in a small town, and to be able to go home for lunch every day, and the fact that her lakeside cottage is just a 10-minute drive from town – or a half-hour bike ride.
But that’s not the half of what makes working in a small community satisfying for her. She was in her first year after call when she was approached to act as president of her local law society. The next year, she was approached to participate in CBA council. She was soon on the local chamber of commerce – and president of the curling club. Far from being isolated in her northern Ontario community, she has been able to take advantage of opportunities for personal and professional enrichment that simply would not have come her way – or at any rate not as quickly – if she’d been working in a larger centre.
“Practice, professional and community opportunities are boundless, you need only seize them,” McGrath says.
OK: Quality of life? Check. Recreational activities? Check. Community involvement? Check. So here’s a question: if everything’s so hunky-dory out in the boonies, why isn’t anyone going there?
Alan Fineblit, CEO of the Law Society of Manitoba, says small and remote communities are “dramatically underserviced” across the country. And where there are lawyers, they’re getting older. He notes that five of the seven lawyers in the town of Shelburne, N.S., have been in practice more than 27 years. Small and remote communities “are basically desperate for people to go there to practice,” he says.
B.C.’s Rural Education and Access to Lawyers Initiative helped place Crocker in Smithers, and is actively working to get young lawyers out into the rural and remote areas. Alberta’s Cyril Gurevitch talked to Council about programs in that province, and Fineblit mentioned the initiatives Manitoba’s law society has been trying to get off the ground.
One audience member said an initiative to move lawyers out of the cities “doesn’t have to be a large program or cost a lot of money.” He said what’s important is to get students out to the rural areas so they can see the possibilities for themselves, so that they can imagine themselves living and working there. Because as Crocker noted, people who have never lived in a rural area can hold a negative stereotype of the lifestyle it offers.
There are a few things that small and remote communities can play up to make themselves more attractive to young lawyers, as well. Crocker mentioned opportunities for mentorship; McGrath emphasized the support you find in small communities, especially small legal communities. Fineblit suggests some kind of locum program could be important to convince people that they would be able to leave their small or solo practice to go on a vacation, or a maternity leave.
Doug Downey suggested Ontario’s new LPP program is “our opportunity to place lawyers in rural communities.” He says there’s a lot of political will behind the idea that the program’s four-month placement requirement be spent in smaller centres.
As one commenter said, it’s vital that the law schools – and law firms – be brought on board to deal with the issue. Because access to justice can only erode if there are no legal professionals around when a legal issue arises.
Kim Covert is a writer and editor with the Canadian Bar Association in Ottawa