For those who are not yet aware, the ISBA Rural Practice Fellowship Program is an important initiative with the goal of placing summer law clerks and associate attorneys with firms in rural areas and small towns across the state. Through the program, summer clerks are awarded a stipend of $5,000 and associate attorneys are awarded a stipend of $10,000 ($5,000 paid initially; $5,000 paid after the associate attorney completes one year of rural practice). These stipends are made possible through the generous support of not only the ISBA, but also the ISBA Mutual Insurance Company and individual donors.

The Special Committee on the Rural Practice Initiative, which created the two-pronged fellowship program, was formed during the 2020-21 ISBA bar year under the leadership of Past-President Dennis Orsey. The initial summer law clerk fellows were placed for the summer of 2021 and the initial associate attorney fellows started in August of 2021. Since its inception, the program has awarded grants to 23 summer clerk fellows and 32 associate attorney fellows. 

In order to qualify for a grant through the Rural Practice Fellowship Program, the fellow applicant must have “matched” with a participating law firm. This means that a participating law firm must have extended a job offer to the fellow as either an associate or law clerk. Not everyone “matched” was able to receive a stipend. Over the past four years, 50 summer clerk matches have applied for grants through the fellowship program, and 35 associate attorney matches have applied for grants.

Over the past several years, the program has evolved to better meet the needs of the program participants and the rural counties they’ve been placed in. For example, program participants are now required to provide pro bono services. Also, while the initial advertising focus for potential fellows was directed at law schools, unfortunately several fellows placed through the program ultimately did not pass the bar exam. For that and other reasons, the Rural Practice Fellowship Program is now advertised to lawyers in urban areas, encouraging them to consider relocating if they are at a transition point in their career. Graduating law students are of course still welcome to apply; but the program now primarily encourages participation from licensed attorneys who might be ready for a change of pace.

Through this program, rural practitioners are able to access lists of law students and lawyers who are interested in rural practice, either as summer law clerks or as associate attorneys. Previously, rural law firms interested in hiring law clerks or associates would need to advertise on their own, using their own budget, incurring fees from a variety of job placement boards in an often-futile attempt at their job posting reaching the eyes of someone willing to relocate to rural Illinois. Now, through the ISBA Rural Practice Fellowship Program, since the ISBA reaches a much broader audience than any one attorney or law firm could hope to reach, law firms are saving money on job postings and are able to sift through a larger list of interested candidates.

Additionally, the Rural Practice Fellowship Program has shined a spotlight on the access to justice issues facing rural Illinois. And the marketing for this program has served to promote the many benefits of rural practice—not only to law students across the state but also to lawyers in urban areas. 

The ISBA has recently expanded the original Special Committee on the Rural Practice Initiative into the new Rural Practice Section and its accompanying section council, which will continue to administer the Fellowship Program in addition to developing other projects focused on benefiting lawyers in small towns and rural areas across Illinois. To join the ISBA Rural Practice Section—which is free to ISBA members until June of 2026—please visit the ISBA Rural Practice Section’s webpage.

If you would like to be involved in the Fellowship Program in particular, please contact Rural Practice Section Chair Angel Wawrzynek at angel@mattoonlawyers.com. If you are able to contribute financially to this remarkable program, please visit the Illinois Bar Foundation website. 

Thank you to everyone who has—either through donations, volunteer hours, or both—helped make the ISBA Rural Practice Fellowship Program an ongoing success! 

Angel Wawrzynek
Chair, ISBA Rural Practice Section