In Sedgwick County, the idea of a satellite law school — similar to the University of Kansas School of Medicine in Wichita — has begun circulating.
The reason? Kansas, especially in rural areas, is struggling to feed the demand for lawyers, in both the private and public sectors.
“And while Wichita is certainly not rural by any means, we're not immune to this either,” said Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett.
According to a December 2024 report by the Kansas Rural Justice Initiative Committee, for every 1,000 Kansans, there are less than three active attorneys working in the state. Nationwide, there are around four lawyers for every 1,000 residents, according to the American Bar Association.
Bennett highlighted some of the factors that contribute to lawyer deserts throughout the state, including the rising cost of education, the rate of lawyers retiring or dying, and the location of Kansas’ only law schools: Washburn University School of Law in Topeka and University of Kansas School of Law in Lawrence.
“Big picture — it’s just not healthy for the state to have such a shortage,” Bennett said.
Washburn and KU are the only institutions where people can obtain a legal education in Kansas, and those campuses are just 30 minutes apart. For people who don’t live in northeast Kansas, obtaining a law degree often means, at the very least, putting life on hold for three or more years.
"If you have to uproot yourself and either drive every day … to Topeka or Lawrence, or move (and) ask your significant other to go with you, or leave them behind and set up two households, or (ask them to) leave the job they have to go up there … “ Bennett said. “There's just a lot of people who are like, ‘Yeah, that doesn't even make sense. There’s no way.’”
A satellite law school in Wichita would solve that problem for many south-central Kansans, according to Bennett. Through his work as district attorney, he has facilitated conversations around the subject.
“We have the example of KU Med … and they have a satellite down here. And so the people can become doctors and learn here in the community,” Bennett said. “I think the same approach could be applied to a law school.”
Conversations about a potential satellite location have reached various local governments and education entities, such as the Sedgwick County Commission, the University of Kansas and the Kansas Board of Regents.
“I'm not sure if a new law school should be considered, but definitely at least a satellite (school) to potentially give those who are hundreds of miles away from both KU and/or Washburn, but still (have) a desire and a passion to do it,” said Mark Dupree, president of the Kansas Bar Association and Wyandotte County’s district attorney.
“And so as the (Kansas) bar, we would not close that door, but definitely would be open to any opportunities to give individuals a chance to become lawyers.”
While a satellite location is only an idea right now, proponents have pledged to keep the conversation active.
“I'm encouraged; I'm hopeful that this discussion will continue,” said Sedgwick County Commissioner Ryan Baty. “It's not going to happen overnight, but these discussions need to continue because it's what's best for this community.”
A satellite law school could help alleviate the shortage of lawyers in Kansas, but decisions like that, from confirmation to construction, can take years to play out. And there are no commitments right now.
“This is a long-term project. This is not something we just turn a key and have it ready by next fall,” Bennett said.
“Ideally, this is a project that, over the course of two or three years, we get support for. And if we could have the first class start in five years, I would consider that a tremendous victory.”
Challenges facing legal system health
In the meantime, the lawyer deficit in Kansas seems likely to grow.
The situation is what the Kansas Rural Justice Initiative Committee labels a “crisis.”
The committee’s December report notes that Kansas is not keeping pace with attorneys who are retiring or dying. The median age for attorneys in rural areas is 55 years; in urban areas, it’s 51.
At the same time, the number of law school applications and first-year law school students has decreased or stagnated over the last 10 years.
And nearly 50% of people who study law in Kansas move out of state to practice.
People who work in private law are also experiencing difficulties. Andy Nolan, a corporate lawyer at Foulston Siefkin, said his firm struggles to recruit people to its Wichita office.
“We're recruiting against the biggest firms in Kansas City,” Nolan said. “... We're competing with them on salary. We're competing with them on community. We're competing with them on quality of work. We're competing with them on opportunity.”
Impact locally
The Rural Justice Initiative report details the difficulties many counties are facing: 53 counties have 10 or fewer attorneys; 16 have three or fewer, and two have no attorneys.
Some of the struggling counties are near Sedgwick County. Bennett said difficulties in other counties can negatively impact his office.
“If you're the county commission in McPherson, or Harvey, or Riley, or some of these other counties … you're going to have to pay a lot more to get people to come to McPherson, Harvey, Riley … and that's what they're doing,” Bennett said.
“And so, I am losing attorneys to those smaller counties because they're paying so much more because they need to get them there.”
Bennett said a smaller legal staff leads to more work for others, giving lawyers less time to dedicate to individual cases. Rigorous demands on lawyers’ time can lead to unhappiness and burnout, factors that could push someone to leave their job.
“And when you lose somebody who's capable of doing those kind of (intense) cases — they don't come right out of law school ready to try murder cases; it takes years of training and preparation trying cases with other people — and (if) you lose that kind of experience, it has a downstream effect all throughout your office,” Bennett said.
Dupree, the Kansas Bar Association president, said a lack of lawyers has wide-reaching effects.
“When you don't have lawyers who are experienced to do these things,” Dupree said, “it puts the entire community at jeopardy for, quite frankly, fraudulent activities and miscarriages of justice.”
