12 minute read
Overheard at the Water Cooler
Legal deserts and their impact on access to justice in the Carolinas
South African writer Nadine Gordimer said that a desert is a place without expectation. Th at is certainly true for the millions of Americans who fi nd themselves living in legal deserts. Nationwide, there are approximately four lawyers for every 1,000 residents, but the number doesn’t refl ect the reality. Most lawyers work in urban areas, but many rural areas of the country have few or no lawyers. Overall, 40% of all counties and county-equivalents in the United States have less than one lawyer per 1,000 residents.
Legal experts call these legal deserts.
Th ere are 1.3 million lawyers in the United States, and 25,000 of them live in North Carolina. According to the 2020 ABA Profi le of the Legal Profession, In North Carolina, we have 2.3 lawyers per 1,000 residents. Our lawyers are clustered in the Research Triangle, Mecklenburg County, the Triad, and Wilmington. In North Carolina, we have 48 counties with fewer than one lawyer per 1,000 residents. We have twelve counties with single-digit number of lawyers.
Succession Planning Reveals Need in NC
I work with lawyers on succession planning. Earlier this year a lawyer in rural North Carolina told me his law fi rm was one of two in a 40-mile radius. He and his partner are in their early to mid-70s, as are the other lawyers in the county. His law fi rm has not received an unsolicited resume from a lawyer in more than 10 years. He serves on his judicial district committee to conduct lawyer fi tness interviews and no one in their judicial district has taken the bar exam in the past three years.
Project Rural Practice
South Dakota was one of the fi rst states to tackle the problem of legal deserts in 2012. Project Rural Practice combines funding from the state, rural counties, and local bars to support young lawyers in small towns and farm counties. Th e results are “legal oases,” said Patrick Goetzinger, former president of the South Dakota State Bar who helped create the program.
According to a South Dakota Law Review 2014 study, 20% of the country’s residents live in rural areas, but only 2% of attorneys practice in rural areas or small towns. Rural lawyers are typically older; a New York state survey of 900 rural lawyers found that 74% were 45 or older and more than 46% said they planned to retire within 10 years.
What Does This Mean for Citizens Who Need Help?
Th e North Carolina State Bar established a Regulatory Reform Study Subcommittee in January 2020. Because of the pandemic, work did not begin until June 2020, but since that time the subcommittee met monthly to hear experts from across the country discuss changes in regulatory reform that are impacting the profession.
Th ere are 14+ states that are studying regulatory reform issues or are engaged in regulatory reform. Increased pressure to study regulatory reform is rising resulting from Access to Justice concerns, increasing legal technology innovations, changes in the legal marketplace, as well as the pandemic and the havoc it has caused for citizens, the courts, and lawyers.
Th e primary mechanism for regulating the market is lawyer ethics, including • Rule 5.4 – who can own and invest in law fi rms • Rule 5.5 – who can do the work • Rules 7.2 – 7.3 constraint of marketing eff orts
Th ese rules are being discussed because the lack of access to justice in our country is a plague for our vulnerable populations such as children, elders, and minorities.
According to the Clio Legal Trends Report, and many other surveys reporting on law, solo and small fi rm lawyers face a challenging environment: • the cost of traditional legal services is going up • access to legal services is going down • the growth rate of law fi rms is fl at • lawyers serving ordinary people are struggling to earn a living
Why is this important?
Most experts do not expect to see an improvement in these legal deserts in the next decade.
Lauren Sudeall, a law professor at Georgia State University, while not optimistic about seeing improvements in these numbers, says, “But I hope that we can have a broader understanding of what access to justice means… Not just by looking at justice as sort of this binary do-you-have-a-lawyeror-not question.”
NC’s Regulatory Reform Conversation
Th e North Carolina State Bar Regulatory Reform Study Subcommittee issued a report to the State Bar Council at their April and July meetings.
Proposals recommended by the Subcommittee included the creation of a regulatory sandbox (allowed in Utah), Limited Licensed Paraprofessionals (Ontario has had a Limited License program for more than 10 years and Utah and Washington have added Limited License programs in recent years), and the use of Court Navigators (allowed in Arizona and New York).
While none of these proposals were accepted and the Regulatory Reform Study Subcommittee has been disbanded, a new committee has been formed to study legal deserts.
Th e NC Justice for All People (JFAP) project is an advocacy group dedicated to improving access to justice in NC through legal regulatory reform. Th eir goal is to mitigate the access to justice gap by introducing innovative solutions into the existing market.
JFAP was founded by paralegals S.M. Kernodle Hodges and Alicia Mitchell-Mercer and Council members include Shawana Almendarez, Morag Polaski, and Rachel Royal.
Visit www.ncjfap.or to learn more about their mission.
Limited Access to Justice
“Nearly every state in the nation has large stretches of rural areas and counties with few lawyers in them – or no lawyers
■ BY CAMILLE STELL at all,” ABA President Judy Perry Martinez said. “In fact, rural residents are disproportionately poor, and many are forced to travel long distances to fi nd lawyers to handle routine matters that aff ect their everyday lives, such as wills, divorces and minor criminal and civil cases.”
Th e NC Equal Access to Justice Commission and the Equal Justice Alliance partnered with UNC Greensboro’s Center for Housing and Community Studies to conduct the fi rst comprehensive civil legal needs assessment of our state in almost 20 years. Results show: • More than 2 million low-income North Carolinians were eligible for the services of legal aid providers in 2018 • Th ere is 1 legal aid attorney for every 8,000 North Carolinians eligible for legal services • 71% of low-income families will experience at least one civil legal problem in a given year • 86% of these legal needs go unmet because of limited resources for civil legal aid providers
In the medical profession, 1 in 10 health care providers are doctors with a wide range of other medical providers who can aid the sick.
In the legal profession, 9 in 10 legal providers are lawyers. Where are all the other resources that our citizens need to deal with problems that impact their lives in no less devasting ways than sickness?
It’s time to consider other options. Here are some that other states are considering or have in place: • Limited License / paraprofessional model • Court Navigators • UPL Liberalization • Alternative Business Structure (ABS) • Regulatory Sandbox • Fee Sharing with Nonlawyers • Alternative Admission to Bar • Nonlawyer Ownership
Nationwide, there are approximately four lawyers for every 1,000 residents, but the number doesn’t reflect the reality. Most lawyers work in urban areas, but many rural areas of the country have few or no lawyers. DepositPhotos
What’s Next?
Th e legal profession has the opportunity to make a diff erence – all of us, not just lawyers. Follow the work of the State Bar Associations who are implementing regulatory reform eff orts. Pay careful attention to the work being done by the NC State Bar and the NC Justice for All project. It’s time to explore the possibilities that exist to expand access to justice for our neighbors and communities in need.
Continue this conversation by contacting Camille Stell at camille@lawyersmutualconsulti ng.com or 919-447-3354.
Q&A: Amy Fleischer
A paralegal with a law degree
As a paralegal with a law degree, Amy Fleischer brings a unique perspective to her job at Ragsdale Liggett in Raleigh.
A litigation paralegal, Fleischer primarily works on insurance defense cases and loves her work for its variety and complexity.
“In the course of my day, I might be doing anything from reviewing medical records in a slip and fall case to reviewing field reports in a case involving a large construction project, to researching media coverage of a school shooting,” she says. “I have worked on cases involving everything from hog farms to dog bites. It’s a cliché, but no two days are ever alike.”
Born at Camp LeJeune, Fleischer’s family lived in Asheboro, N.C. and Greenville, S.C., before moving to Raleigh during her freshman year of high school. She graduated from
N.C. State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy and completed the Legal Assistant Program (now Paralegal Program) at Meredith College in 1995. After working as a paralegal for a few years, she went on to Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law in Washington, D.C. and received her law degree in 2001. She passed the Virginia Bar exam but rather than enter a law practice, she stuck with her career as a paralegal.
Fleischer’s husband is also an attorney with an active construction law practice in Durham.
Career journey: When I graduated from NC State with a Philosophy degree, I had no idea what I wanted to do for a living. During college, I had worked part-time as a runner for an attorney’s office, so a friend suggested that I look into becoming a paralegal. I completed the Legal Assistant Program at Meredith College while working fulltime at Barnes & Noble. I have always loved reading and doing research, so the skills and tasks of paralegal work were a good fit for my interests. In my first paralegal position, I worked as a paralegal on a large document review project. Several of the other paralegals were in the process of applying to law school. I had never considered going to law school, but I thought that I was just as capable as they were, so I decided to apply.
My desktop: My desk has various notepads and sticky notes with to-do lists and reminders in my never-ending effort to become more efficient and organized. I also have stacks of documents and folders for the cases I am currently working on. I would love to be paperless, but some tasks are just simpler with paper. In my office, I have photos of my family and our dogs. My favorite thing on my desk is a Mother’s Day card my son made for me in first grade, my evidence that at one point, he thought I was a “real cool mom.”
Work inspiration: My co-workers are some of my best friends. On stressful days, it’s so nice to have people
Amy Fleischer
around you that you know will have your back and that you know will get your jokes. Also, knowing that I am helping our clients is very important to me. I always try to keep in mind that our clients are depending on us to help guide them through a difficult process. The issues that we deal with in litigation are things we see every day, but most people have no personal experience with the legal system, so I try to be there to offer I have always loved reading reassurance and to make the and doing research, so process less stressful. Work-life balance: My husthe skills and tasks of band is an attorney, so we unparalegal work were a good derstand each other’s work fit for my interests. In my challenges well. I am grateful to work have worked in firms that first paralegal position, I value work/life balance. They worked as a paralegal on a large document review have always been supportive and understanding when I’ve had to miss work to do mom project. Several of the things or handle emergencies at other paralegals were in home. One advantage to being a paralegal instead of an attorney the process of applying is that for the most part, you are to law school. I had never able to leave your work at the considered going to law office at the end of the day. Influential mentors: I have school, but I thought that I been fortunate to have the opwas just as capable as they portunity to work with so many were, so I decided to apply. great firms and attorneys in my career. The attorneys I currently work with at Ragsdale Liggett have such a breadth of expertise and experience and I am always learning from them. Mary Webb in particular has been a great mentor to me. I admire her relentless work ethic, the relationships she develops with clients and colleagues, and how she manages such a large and diverse case load while being a supportive and involved mom herself. During downtime: When I’m not working, I enjoy reading, traveling with my family, and seeing live music. My 16-year-old son is a drummer and has a band with some friends, so I especially love seeing him play. - Teri Saylor
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