Family and friends watched graduates become lawyers, as Justice Lisa Holder White swore them in to begin their careers in the Fourth Judicial District.
The 41-county district encompasses much of Western and Central Illinois, extending from Ford County west to the Iowa state line and running north-south from the Wisconsin border to Macoupin and Jersey County.
The district includes some of downstate Illinois' most populous areas, such as McLean County, Greater Peoria and Sangamon County, containing the state capitol. But the Fourth District got just five of the 279 new attorneys sworn in on May 6.
These are law school graduates who passed the bar exam in February.
Illinois Supreme Court Justice Lisa Holder White presided over the swearing in ceremony. She said there are usually more people in the November ceremony, but the trend is real: Most lawyers opt to work in Cook County and its surrounding "collar counties."
The Fourth District fared worst in the most recent pool of graduates, with 93% of newly sworn in lawyers assigned in the northeast corner of the state. The Fifth District, comprised of 48 counties extending from Champaign to the state's southern tip, got 12 new lawyers this round.
The graduates
Connor Martin, a new lawyer sworn in at the ceremony who lives outside of Morton, said conversations about president Abraham Lincoln with his grandfather led him to become a lawyer.
“He had a fascination with Abraham Lincoln. Him and I would talk about Abraham Lincoln all the time together and in those conversations, I learned Abraham Lincoln was a lawyer — and I said, 'What's a lawyer?” Martin said.
Martin said as a kid he saw one aspect of the legal process because his dad was a police officer.
Martin said some of his family lives in Schuyler County, where there are only six private attorneys, according to the Illinois Bar Association.
“[Clients are] driving to Springfield, to Peoria, to Quincy, some to Chicago, some to St Louis. They have to go a large distance to be able to get services,” Martin said.
Martin said it is important for him to be a generalist in the legal profession so he can best represent his local community because there are so few lawyers in his region.
“Being a prosecutor representing the people of the state, it's my job and responsibility to understand, being someone who's born and raised in Central Illinois, what it means and what are the values of the people of Central Illinois in how we prosecute cases,” Martin said.
Elizabeth Gray was another person sworn in at the ceremony. She plans to continue working at the state’s attorney office in Sangamon County.
Gray said she moved from McHenry County in Northwest Illinois to Sangamon County because of her fiancé and Rule 711. That's a temporary license permitting law students to practice under the supervision of a licensed attorney.
“I came down for my 711 requirement for law school, and I am with the Sangamon County State's Attorney's Office,” Gray said. “It's a great experience, because you're in the courtroom every day, and so it's a great opportunity to put your law degree to full use.”
Attracting attorneys to legal deserts
Holder White said there are plenty of lawyers coming into the Illinois justice system. She said addressing shortages is more about trying to get them to come to rural communities and stay there.
“It's difficult to attract them to areas outside of Cook County and the collar counties," she said.
The state's highest court recently announced changes expanding Rule 711 to allow more law students and graduates to gain practical experience while studying for the bar.
"We're also hoping that it will have the impact of drawing people to the legal deserts,” Holder White said.
Among the Rule 711 changes is an extension allowing law school graduates to keep their temporary licenses if they don't pass the bar exam on the first try.
“Hopefully they will make sure that they take whatever additional steps are necessary to pass. And it does give them that opportunity and a little more stability in terms of being able to keep their position, because likely they're being paid,” Holder White said.
Holder White said if a graduate does not pass the bar exam a second time they will lose their 711 license because it can not extend it forever.
Looking for lawyers
Bloomington attorney John Kim, who is also the first downstate lawyer to chair the Illinois Supreme Court's Commission on Professionalism, said the changes to Rule 711 should help alleviate legal deserts, but he is still waiting for more data to see how successful the change will be.
Kim gave a speech at the May 6 commencement ceremony congratulating the new lawyers on beginning their careers. Kim said the new lawyers he was able to talk to were very passionate about where they worked.
“These young people have usually the best of our profession in mind, the excitement of having completed law school, passing the bar exam — but they truly are looking to give back, to do well in the profession as new lawyers,” Kim said.
Kim said given the Fourth District's geography covering Springfield, the Quad Cities, Rockford, Peoria and Bloomington-Normal, admitting just five new attorneys is "a real challenge.
“...Simply, very few lawyers coming to this part of the state,” he said.
Kim said people always have good lawyer jokes about there being too many lawyers, but in some places the opposite is true. Kim added driving a few miles outside of Bloomington-Normal people have a problem accessing the justice system.
Kim said there is a shortage of new lawyers in some counties but there is also a lack of established lawyers coming to these counties. That's needed in McLean County, which Kim said is having some succession issues because attorneys retire with no experienced lawyer to replace them.
Kim said one solution is the partnership between circuit courts and the Illinois Supreme Court to research legal deserts and create solutions to get lawyers to rural counties.
“It really becomes a partnership, not just with the courts, but of the local bar association, the private attorneys, the local courthouses, to be able to find solutions to meet the needs,” he said.
Kim said Illinois is looking into every option and is also implementing a system for community justice workers. These are certified professionals who are not lawyers to provide limited legal assistance in legal deserts under the supervision of an Illinois-licensed attorney.
Kim said this is a short term solution and there needs to be more lawyers coming to live and work in rural communities.
"It really becomes a multipronged approach of, how do we address this challenge of legal deserts?" Kim said.
