Rural Practice Committee

Benefits

Even if you have no intention of hiring an associate at this time, the benefits you receive as set out below outweigh the costs and help educate students to small-town practice and, hopefully, in all cases allow the students to be a little more road-ready upon graduation. The attorneys who hired clerks in the summer of 2012 realized a number of benefits, some of which they hadn’t expected. Responses to a survey of the participating attorneys at the end of the summer yielded these comments:

• Assisted in reducing the workload
• Helped me complete past projects
• Helped clean up past due files
• Provided a good sounding board  
  

The last comment was probably the most surprising to many of the attorneys. As one pointed out, it’s nice to have someone with whom you can discuss legal issues, even if he or she just completed the first year in law school.