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Country Lawyers Feeling Good About Their Life Choices

One way to pay off your debts, but is it worth it?

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nebraska-panorama-point-plains-under-the-skyBack in 2013, we reported that South Dakota was getting its Northern Exposure on with a pilot program aimed at attracting lawyers to the state’s underrepresented rural regions.

This weekend, PBS Newshour produced a piece on how the program’s worked out:

The phrase we employed at the time was “quasi-indentured servitude.”

And with an annual stipend of $12,500/year in exchange for five years of service, it would seem like it if you thought that was all you’re going to be earning. But assuming you get some kind of a practice going, it’s not all that scary. Attorney earnings in states with a lot of rural practices average around $50K per year, and if a lawyer can carve out $62,500 per year with the help of that stipend, that has the buying power of almost $140K in New York dollars.

Too bad nominal student loan debt doesn’t respect cost-of-living calculators. But if young lawyers didn’t impoverish themselves getting their degrees — either through scholarships or by opting for lower-tuition state institutions — they could actually find themselves ahead of the game.

The lawyers in this piece sure seem happy.

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Earlier: Need a Rural Lawyer? Why Not Use a Quasi-Indentured Servitude Plan?
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