On January 15, 2014, Chief Justice Gilbertson addressed a joint session of the South Dakota Legislature for his annual State of the Judiciary message. In contrast to past messages in which he outlined problems faced by the South Dakota Unified Judicial System (UJS), this year Justice Gilbertson discussed the programs instituted to correct these problems. These programs include the Criminal Justice Initiative (alternative sentencing for non-violent felons with addictions and the Veterans Court), the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative, the Rural Attorney Recruitment Initiative, and the UJS's new paperless filing system, the Odyssey Case Management System.
With particular relevance to law students, the Chief Justice updated legislators on the Rural Attorney Recruitment Program, established by last year's House Bill 1096. This program is intended to reverse the trend of lawyers migrating to the larger cities in South Dakota and leaving rural counties without legal services. To read more about this program, visit the Project Rural Practice blog. The most recent blog post, by former State Bar President Patrick Goetzinger, highlights the ALPS Attorney Match program, a free online service to link attorneys to one another. As stated by Attorney Goetzinger,
"[w]hether for the purposes of forming a mentorship or transitioning a practice, ALPS Attorney Match is a solution to many of the challenges, geographic and otherwise, we encounter to connect with one another and pave the way for attorneys to not only survive, but thrive in our rural communities."
In related news, the South Dakota Law Review will present its Rural Practice Symposium March 20-21 at the University of South Dakota School of Law in Vermillion, South Dakota.
Resources from the McKusick Law Library on practicing law in rural areas include:
Practicing Law in Small Town America/By Richard L. Hermann
Becoming a Rural Lawyer: A Personal Guide to Establishing a Small Town Practice/By Bruce M. Cameron
No comments:
Post a Comment