OBERLIN, Kansas — Steve Hirsch serves as county attorney in four counties and as city attorney in 20 communities in western Kansas … and he has even more jobs.
The 64-year-old also files income tax returns, helps handle affairs after someone dies and has been a member of nearly every civic organization that will have him.
Walk down the street with him, and it feels like everybody knows Hirsch and he knows the communities he serves.
People wave at him as he walks through downtown Oberlin. Businesses line the well-preserved Penn Avenue — a brick road that feels like an old west cow town.
Hirsch knows the history of each building. He even knows when the brick road itself came to town.
“They were just doing dirt, these were dirt roads. That changed in 1926,” Hirsch said.
He knows the community like the back of his hand, but the question Kansas lawmakers and attorneys across the state have to answer is: What happens when legal pillars like Hirsch retire?
Filling the gap
Rural attorney numbers continue to decline due to a graying community of lawyers serving as county and city attorneys across the state.
It takes a specific type of attorney to want to serve in rural Kansas. The pay on average is significantly less than their urban counterparts.
If these jobs aren’t filled rural Kansans will continue to have less representation. The non profit legal aid company Legal Services Corporation found that at least three-quarters of rural households face at least one civil legal issue every year, but more than 85% don’t receive enough legal help.
A rural lawyer has to have the right mindset too.
Someone who eschews modern conveniences like big box stores and restaurant options in favor of wide open spaces. A lawyer who needs to be a jack-of-all-trades instead of being specialized in one legal area.
Kansas lawmakers are hoping to find more young lawyers that have the rural mindset. A new law pays incentives to lawyers that practice or plan to practice in rural areas of the state.
People like Hirsh would leave a big gap in the community if they aren’t replaced. He’s not only a lawyer, but also as a leader and a confidant.
Now nearing retirement age, Hirsch is mentoring the next generation of rural lawyers that the new law could help create.
“And I tell young attorneys that you're more than an attorney to these people, you are a friend,” Hirsch said. “You will end up being their pallbearer at their funerals.”
Oberlin is one of many rural legal deserts in Kansas.
Potential solutions to the rural legal deserts
A 2024 Rural Justice Initiative Committee Report indicated that nearly half of the state’s rural counties are legal deserts, and according to Kansas Supreme Court Justice KJ Wall, that number is increasing.
Wall said rural Kansas needs legal reinforcements.
“We've got dozens and dozens of counties in our state that meet the definition of a rural legal desert,” Wall said “Since we started the Rural Justice Initiative, we've added over a dozen more counties to that list, unfortunately.”
Washburn University Law Associate Dean Shawn Leisinger helped write the legislation to combat this issue. He said legal deserts can lead to burnout and make for an overworked group of lawyers.
“Criminal defense counsel are traveling two, three, four (or) five counties away just to serve the basic required appointments.”
To help meet the needs of these rural areas lawmakers passed a two-pronged plan.
- Give law students $3,000 stipends if they promise to work in a rural area.
- Give practicing lawyers $20,000 for each year they serve in a rural area for up to five years.
These programs are set to begin in late fall with funding coming through the Kansas Department of Commerce in collaboration with the Office of Rural Prosperity.
More than an attorney
Kansas Court of Appeals Chief Judge Sarah Warner said rural attorneys form the “backbone of civic culture” in Kansas towns.
“Without those people, you have municipalities that are less informed,” Warner said. “And you have fewer resources that people can go to when they have issues.”
The need for lawyers that want to lead exists throughout the state’s rural legal deserts. But how can an attorney that’s trained in Lawrence or Topeka, where the state’s two law schools are located, adjust to country life?
Overland Park native Noah Hahs made the adjustment. After working for a handful of years in Dodge City he moved to northwestern Kansas.
Hahs said adapting to rural Kansas is all about getting to know where you work.
“The adjustment is learning the place and the people,” Hahs said. “There’s a lot of fun in that, too.”
Hahs works as a city and county attorney in numerous communities in the northwestern part of the state.
There are some drawbacks to living in rural Kansas. Hahs said that he travels 30 minutes to Nebraska to get the “good chicken.”
But, there are also plenty of selling points for those wanting to become a rural lawyer. There are so many different options for attorneys.
“Out here, there’s really an opportunity for whatever you want,” Hahs said. “It’s almost easier to say what I don’t do than what I do.”
Rural attorneys get a wide spectrum in probate work, income tax filing, property law and more. While urban attorneys generally work in a more specialized field.
Another early career lawyer wanting to help fill the rural gap is Corey Dipman.
Dipman is about to enter his third year of law school at Washburn. He’s been working in Oberlin and learning under Hirsch’s tutelage each summer. Dipman grew up in Great Bend and Topeka before serving in the Navy and as a deputy sheriff in Gove County.
His goal is to eventually replace the only attorney in the county.
“Gove County has one attorney that lives in the county who I worked with as a deputy, and he's planning on retiring,” Dipman said. “So my goal is to eventually run for county attorney in that county and then just kind of go from there.”
Rural attorneys like Hahs and Dipman will face challenges: They have to be adaptable, have leadership qualities and be ok with traveling 30 minutes to the nearest big box grocery store.
But, if this next generation of rural lawyers is able to meet these challenges then there's a chance for them to have high-profile roles like county and city attorney early in their career.
And an opportunity to become the new backbone of a community.
The Kansas News Service is a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio.
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