Country lawyers enjoy quality client relationships, diverse work opportunities and lifestyle benefits - but working in regional and rural areas is not without its challenges. Justin Whealing reports.

LAWYERS AHEAD: Many lawyers in regional and rural areas are finding a varied range of legal work available

There is a perception that lawyers who relocate from the country to the city only do so because they want a better work/life balance. While lifestyle is undoubtedly a big drawcard, many are also attracted to the varied range of legal work available.

"There is a much different style of practice between the big city firms and the rural and regional firms," says Tim Robertson, a partner with Robertson Hyetts in Bendigo, Victoria. "It is much more personal and there is much more contact between the client and the solicitor in country firms."

Robertson started his legal career with Mallesons Stephen Jaques in Melbourne in the early 1980's, and could have embarked on the well-trodden private practice career path that working with a large national firm provides. However, as he was a country boy from the East Gippsland region of Victoria, he was keen to move back to a rural setting. He says it is the personal nature of the interaction with clients that he really enjoys about his work, with that close and lasting connection with clients being one of the major points of difference when compared with his old life as a lawyer with a big city firm.

"Clients aren't looking for long and technical letters of advice about the rights or technical merits of a transaction, they are looking for much more direct and practical advice - and will often ask you for your own opinion," he says. "The responsibility that country solicitors have is very different from what lawyers in the big city firms have."

Robertson Hyetts is a full service commercial law firm, with connections in Bendigo stretching back to the 1880's. Robertson says that given Bendigo is a large regional town with a population of just under 100,000 people, lawyers within the firm have the opportunity to specialise indifferent practice areas and to work on large commercial transactions and grow their practice in lock-step with the growth of the business operations of their clients.

"I practise exclusively in property development," Robertson says. "I act for a group of companies called Villawood Properties, who have grown to become major residential property developers in Melbourne and interstate."

"Clients are looking for much more direct and practical advice - and will often ask you for your own opinion." Tim Robertson, partner, Robertson Hyetts

While the value of these commercial transactions is not in the realm of the M&A and construction and property work that the large national firms routinely act on, Robertson has never felt like his career or practise has been second rate as compared to his city colleagues.

"I have absolutely no regrets," Robertson says. "The appeal for me in working in the country is to become familiar with your clients, to see their business and their families grow and prosper, and to be involved in those transitions."

Leaving the rat race behind

While Robertson left the confines of Mallesons in Melbourne to return to a rural setting, for some bush lawyers, the experience of living and working in the country is a novel experience.

Bathurst lawyer Lindsay Hall spent the first 24 years of his life in Sydney. After graduating from the University of New South Wales, Hall spent one year working for Justice Kenneth Handley in the NSW Court of Appeal in Sydney. In his mid 20's, Hall decided that he wanted to leave Sydney, and moved to Bathurst in NSW. He has since had a stint on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, before relocating to Bathurst again two years ago to take up a position with the firm Kenny Spring.

While Hall has enjoyed the country lifestyle, he hasn't put his career ambitions on hold.

"While on the Sunshine Coast I worked in a sole practice," Hall says. "I moved to Bathurst because I wanted to further my career in a bigger firm in a regional centre."

Hall used the services of the Evocities in moving back to Bathurst. Evocities helps blue and white collar workers relocate from capital cities to seven regional cities in NSW, of which Bathurst is one.

"When you look at your mortgage savings and reduced transport costs to get to and from work, it would be strongly disputed that there is any loss in your income at all," says Evocities spokesperson and former mayor of Tamworth James Treloar when asked if it is difficult to lure lawyers to regional firms, given they will be earning less when compared to salaries in the state capitals.

The 37 year-old Hall says that by living in Bathurst, he has the benefits of being able to access a range of educational, sporting and artistic facilities that are comparable to the state capital cities. He also says that unlike many lawyers working in Sydney, he can get to work within 10 minutes and be home at 6.30pm on most nights to spend time with his wife and three young children.

"My father in law is a quality manager with a company in Sydney, and he spends 90 minutes each morning travelling to work and then another 90 minutes travelling home again," Hall says. "That unpleasant consequence of city practice doesn't appeal to me and wouldn't be fair to my family."

Similar to Robertson, Hall says that it is the personal nature of the client interaction that is appealing about working in the country. Hall says that fraternal nature of practice extends to the links country lawyers can gain with other local professional groups.

"When you work in a country practice in a town with a number of other professional colleagues and firms, it presents you with the opportunity to build contacts that working in a city firm would also present," Hall says. "However, in a country practice, the closeness of your working relationship with other professions, such as accountancy firms, means that you can assist your mutual clients in a way that is not possible in a city law firm."

"That unpleasant consequence [commuting] of city practice doesn't appeal to me and wouldn't be fair to my family" Lindsay Hall, solicitor, Kenny Spring

Bring back the fun

While there is no doubt that country living has many benefits, such as more affordable housing and less traffic congestion, for lawyers working in the country, it can be a lonely existence.

Slater & Gordon solicitor Terry O'Riain has practiced in Albury, a city on the NSW - Victorian border with a population of roughly 50,000, for around 16 years.

His role at Slaters is supported by the Regional Solicitor Program through Legal Aid NSW, which is struggling to attract young lawyers.

"In Albury at the moment there is no one who can run a defended criminal matter," O'Riain says.

He believes that country areas are struggling to attract young lawyers, despite the high quality of the work available in many areas, because the modern legal system has made it harder for young lawyers in country areas to make contacts and develop their legal skills.

"We used to have a big criminal law and civil law circuit out here, and got the chance to interact with a lot of people" he says. "You met with your colleagues on the defendant side, the DPP and the various counsel, and you were able to build relationships with the senior lawyers who would then act as mentors to the younger lawyers," O'Riain says as he reminisces about his formative years as a country lawyer. "Through those contacts, as a young lawyer, you would get to act on really big pieces of work, which provided a terrific learning experience.

However, according to O'Riain, the rationalisation of legal services and need to spend as much time in the office as possible has reduced the extent of personal interaction between rural lawyers.

"Today, a lot of the fun is taken out of legal work," he says matter of factly. "Things like workers compensation are now paper driven, and you don't get to go to court anymore, as you deal with the other side on the phone.

You don't get to develop those relationships anymore and that has taken away a lot of the enjoyment of working in country areas."

O'Riain urges regional and state law societies to do more to ease the feelings of isolation that many young lawyers feel in country regions.

"If lawyers come to the bush, they need to feel they will get the peer support and mentoring available in big city firms," he says. "Something like a senior solicitor program needs to be developed, where young lawyers can talk to other professionals about career progression and rise mental health issues.

"When you look at your mortgage savings and reduced transport costs to get to and from work, it would be strongly disputed that there is any loss in your income at all" James Treloar, Evocities spokesperson

The Law Society of NSW is one such legal body that has recognised this problem.

In 2002 NSW Young Lawyers delegates representing their regional law societies started Bushweb, as a way for delegates to converse via email when preparing for mid-year and annual assemblies. It has since been extended to provide a general forum for young lawyers throughout regional NSW and to provide an on-line support network for young lawyers in far-flung parts of the state.

"It is always difficult for young lawyers starting out in the profession where ever they are and distance is a major factor in rural and regional areas and because of this, it can be difficult," says Daniel Petrushnko, the NSW Young Lawyers President. "With technology getting better and the structure that Bushweb has in place, it does allow our regional and rural members to use it as a forum to communicate and identify with each other. It also helps to break down the isolation."

Members of all of the 29 regional law societies in NSW have access to Bushweb.

"Today, a lot of the fun is taken out of legal work" Terry O'Riain, solicitor, Slater & Gordon

As lawyers in country areas can struggle to find support, that feeling of isolation can also extend to firms on the ground being overlooked by large entities when they invest into rural regions.

Robertson Hyetts Bendigo partner Tim Robertson says that his firm has had no success trying to get a foot in the door with the government agencies that operate in Bendigo.

"A real challenge that a firm like ours faces is to get a fair share of the more remunerative legal work going down the Calder Highway to Melbourne, particularly work emanating from government departments," he says.

In Bendigo, the Department of Environment and Sustainability and the Rural Finance Corporation of Victoria all have operations in Bendigo, with Robertson Hyetts seeking to get a seat on the table with the larger city boys and girls.

"Our experience is that the legal work that flows out of those sorts of organisations goes to bigger offices, with country firms being overlooked," he says. "A priority for us is to break into that field."