NOW HIRING: Thousands of Lawyers

With all the stories about the lousy lawyer job market, it may come as a surprise that there are legal jobs for recent graduates that are going begging. But to earn a paycheck, new lawyers may need to make like the doctor in the 1990s TV series Northern Exposure, and head to the nation’s small towns and rural areas.

Those communities are so underserved that the ABA adopted a resolution this year that calls on state and local bars to develop programs to recruit small town lawyers. “The main street attorney in rural America is an endangered species,” it said.

In Washington State, where almost a quarter of the state’s lawyers plan to retire in the next five years, the bar association is matching young attorneys to older mentors to help with law firm succession planning. And in Iowa, the state bar has teamed with several law schools to match law students with small town practitioners. There are similar programs in South Dakota and Kansas.

The help wanted sign is up for the next generation’s Atticus Finch.