From the Yld President
| Jurisdiction | Georgia,United States |
| Citation | Vol. 28 No. 5 Pg. 0010 |
| Pages | 0010 |
| Publication year | 2023 |
RONALD EDWARD "RON" DANIELS
YLD President
State Bar of Georgia
ron@danielstaylorlaw.com
Eat the Cold Fried Chicken
There are six counties in Georgia without a single practicing lawyer. Many more have 10 or fewer lawyers. In the Oconee Judicial Circuit,[1] there is a single lawyer in private practice younger than me-and I am teetering on the precipice of no longer being a "young" lawyer. The lack of lawyers in rural Georgia is an increasing problem. But the problem isn't unique to Georgia. The American Bar Association calls these "legal deserts." For whatever reason, lawyers are simply not setting up offices or practices in rural areas. Perhaps many associate rural locales with a perceived inability to earn a living. Others might look past the "legal desert" and see a veritable "sea of opportunity."[2]
I don't expect you to drop what you are doing, hop on Zillow, buy a house and office in rural Georgia, pack up and move. Being a rural lawyer can be very rewarding and enjoyable. At the same time, this lifestyle ain't for everyone. Some love it. Some people spend their life trying to figure out how to move on. "So, what is the point of this article?" Good question, dear reader.
The point is quite simple: you have got to be true to yourself. There are going to be times in your career where you will be faced with choices. Hard choices. Easy choices. Decisions that will forever alter your life. Decisions that appear essentially meaningless. What type of law to practice? Do you enjoy practicing with the people you work with? Do you sign up a potential new client or not? How to break the news to a client you lost their trial and the prospect of an appeal is hopeless? Should you stay late so you can bill more and finish a brief? Are you sure you have triple checked the title opinion? Oxford comma or not? Grey or navy suit? Blue or black ink?
Whether we want to acknowledge it or not, everything that has happened to us up until the moment we are faced with a choice goes into our response. Our life experiences dictate how we see the potential outcomes of our actions. And perhaps out of a need to not appear selfish, we often times are self-sacrificial in our decisions, put others ahead of ourselves. In other words, how we are taught to analyze problems in law school and in our profession causes us to ignore our own self by analyzing how our decisions might impact others. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? I'm not certain either way.
Here is what I...
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