Estabrook: Mayor-turning-lawyer sees lots of opportunities in small towns

Bicknell, like many small cities and towns throughout Indiana, experienced years of expansive growth in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The years when these areas “boomed” were often driven by local coal mining operations that brought workers from across the country seeking work.

A look at the city’s phone book from 1917-18 shows listings for five attorneys in Bicknell: Hugh Barr, H.A. Foncannon, J.A. (Jim) Jones, Merle Loucks, and Harry Valentine. All these attorneys had offices in downtown, with some practicing together.

The phone book even shows an advertisement from future Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Curtis Shake who was a Knox County native and served as Bicknell’s city attorney at one time.

Shake was practicing in Vincennes but did a considerable amount of business in Bicknell. Another Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice and the court’s first permanent Chief Justice, Norman F. Arterburn, has roots in Bicknell having been born here in 1902 and teaching at Bicknell High School before receiving his bachelor’s degree in 1923 and law degree in 1926.

These attorneys adequately served the city’s 6,917 residents well. However, Bicknell, like many small cities in rural America, eventually saw decline from its “glory days.”

In Bicknell, it began with the general coal strike in 1927 which dramatically reduced the number of available jobs and caused the most dramatic shift in population.

The city’s population slowly declined over the next half century with a small jump in the population during the 1980s only to return to decline in 1990s which is also when the city began to lose many local businesses due to retirements and passing of owners with no succession plan compounded by people my parents’ age moving to larger cities for often better opportunities.

The city saw its first population increase during the last census when the population climbed back over 3,000.

For the last 50 years, Bicknell had at least two or three practicing attorneys in the city or in the Bicknell area who could practice law and were not in the prosecutor’s office or on the bench.

In 2020, that record ended when the last attorney in Bicknell retired, and the city found itself in one of rural Indiana’s legal deserts.

Knox County Circuit Court Judge Monica Gilmore agrees that the attorney shortage is a real concern, especially in rural areas.

She says the number of available attorneys in the county is decreasing as many experienced practitioners retire and the number of new attorneys available to replace them shrinks.

Knox County currently has approximately 40 attorneys. However, the number of attorneys who can privately practice is reduced when the three judges, one magistrate, and personnel in the prosecutor’s office are removed from the total.

These attorneys have to serve the county’s 36,000 residents, multiple units of local government, businesses of all sizes, and the criminal justice system.

Gilmore said that she regularly sees the attorney shortage issue in her court when it comes to criminal cases.

“The attorney shortage significantly impacts criminal cases and how the courts function. We have good, dedicated public defenders in Knox County who carry heavy caseloads. This causes the courts to run a shell game on which cases get to go because it is difficult for attorneys to prep so many cases at once and for the court to balance the schedule.”

Judge Gilmore also says that Knox County has three to four public defenders who regularly come from outside of the county to represent clients. She says that it can cause havoc with the calendar since scheduling is driven by the availability of a certain number of public defenders, many of whom may have civil cases that require attention while juggling many public defense cases. It can often lead to an inefficient use of the court’s time.

Judge Gilmore said there is also a considerable impact on the civil side as well. There are lawyers who are “drowning” in work because of a high demand for and short supply of attorneys. Knox County, as with many counties, will soon see an exodus of attorneys largely due to retirements with several likely to occur over the next decade.

When I started the part-time law school program at IU McKinney in the fall of 2022, it was well known in the community that I was attending law school, and given my current job as mayor, it was easy for people to approach me. I quickly found out that the demand for legal services was stronger than I thought.

I went to my doctor’s office during my first semester, and one of the nurses is an acquaintance. She asked me if I was in law school. When I said that I was, she said that I should call her when I get done because she had something that she wanted me to do. She did not seem bothered by the fact that I would not be finished for three and a half years.

If I had a law license, it would have been one of the few instances where I would have gone to a doctor’s office and made money.

It is very common for me to be stopped in town either at the grocery store, city hall, or one of our local restaurants when someone says, “Hey I have a question. What do you know about (insert legal issue here)?”

Despite a recessionary past, the future is bright for many of Indiana’s rural communities. Cities of all sizes have thought outside of the box when it comes to housing with new homes popping up to combat the low supply of new, affordable housing. It is very easy to find a home at much cheaper cost in rural Indiana as compared to larger cities.

Additionally, despite a smaller population, there is no shortage of legal work in rural areas. Of course, the work may not get you an appearance before the Supreme Court, but it is highly consequential because it is often the most important and often only time someone in a rural community may need an attorney.

The most common examples include estate planning for aging parents, property transfers, and business planning for both existing businesses and new startups. Many of those businesses include family farms.

A recent example includes a local monument restoration business that started in Bicknell. The business needed an LLC created in order to get started. The business did find the help it needed, and that help made the difference in a new business being created in Bicknell.

Fortunately, more concrete solutions for the attorney shortage may be well on their way. The Indiana Supreme Court recently signed an order based on recommendations from the court’s Commission on Indiana’s Legal Future approving and recommending actions that can be taken to ease the attorney shortage.

I am fortunate enough sit on the commission’s subgroup that discusses incentives for rural practice. Actions include stipends for student loan relief and some funding for start up costs for a rural practice. Some of the commission’s recommendations will require approval of the legislature.

Back in Bicknell, I can soundly say that the city’s future is bright. While the “glory days” may not ever fully return, change and growth abound. This change can be seen in all of our rural communities. Attorneys have a key role in keeping the momentum moving. Bicknell and our rural communities, like Andy Griffith’s Mayberry, may not have the hustle and bustle of the big city, but I can tell you that they are great places to live where an attorney can have a long lasting impact.•

__________

Thomas Estabrook is mayor of Bicknell and a student at the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law. Opinions expressed are those of the author.