By Anna Kaminski
TOPEKA — Legislators want the state of Kansas to pay local law students a stipend if they promise to practice in a rural part of the state upon graduation.
They also want to repay the student loans of working rural attorneys. It’s all part of an effort to address a persistent rural attorney shortage. House Bill 2595, or the “attorney training for rural Kansas act,” creates two programs meant to attract and retain practicing attorneys in the state’s rural areas.
More than 40% of the population lives in a rural part of the state but only 20% of the state’s attorneys practice there.
“By helping new lawyers build sustainable careers in rural communities, this legislation expands access to justice today and lays the groundwork for stronger communities in the years ahead,” said Gregory Schwartz, president of the Kansas Bar Association, in a Wednesday news release.
The student stipend program is meant for University of Kansas and Washburn University law students. Eligible students can receive up to $3,000 each school year for tuition, fees, books, supplies or other school-related expenses. Recipients must begin practicing in rural Kansas within 90 days of being admitted into the state bar, following law school graduation.
In exchange for each year’s stipend, graduates have to practice in rural Kansas for at least one consecutive year. So a full-time law student who used a stipend for each school year of the typical three-year track would be required by the program to practice law in rural Kansas for three years.
More seasoned attorneys who practice in rural areas can receive up to $100,000 in student loan repayments under the program, in maximum amounts of $20,000 each year. Participation is capped at five years.
The legislation classifies rural Kansas as anywhere in the state other than the population-dense Douglas, Johnson, Sedgwick, Shawnee and Wyandotte counties. With the addition of Leavenworth County, 80% of Kansas attorneys live in the aforementioned counties.
The bill had bipartisan, bicameral support, with only a handful of Republicans in both chambers voting against the bill. The programs were recommended by a judicial branch committee, but, as Agra Republican Rep. Ken Rahjes noted on the House floor Tuesday, the Senate eliminated judicial oversight of the programs, shifting it to the Kansas Department of Commerce.
Rep. Linda Featherston, an Overland Park Democrat, said the bill was important to justice in Kansas.
The Kansas Rural Justice Initiative Committee proposed 10 solutions, including these two programs, to address the dearth of rural attorneys and barriers to access to justice. The committee found that law school students struggled with large student debt loads and concerns about the availability of mentorship, housing and health care in rural areas.
Schwartz said the legislation supports the legal needs of rural Kansans.
“This investment is an important step toward strengthening the rural attorney pipeline,” he said, “and the Kansas Bar Association is committed to being an active partner in ensuring the program’s long‐term success.”
The House voted 119-3 Tuesday to send the bill to the governor. The Senate passed the bill 34-6 last week. If it becomes law, the programs could go into effect as early as this fall.
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