New scholarship seeks to combat rural lawyer shortage
Staff writer
A fourth-generation farm family with ties to Marion, Dickinson, and Morris counties has established a perpetual scholarship at the University of Kansas School of Law aimed at helping rural Kansas students pursue legal careers.
The James Reidy Scholarship will prioritize students from Marion, Dickinson, and Morris counties attending KU’s law school. If no eligible students from those counties are enrolled, the scholarship will be available to other rural Kansas students.
Reidy, a KU law graduate and attorney with McDermott Will & Schulte, said his family wanted to “give back to the community that has been friends and supporting us for decades.”
The family’s farming roots are near Hope but include property near Tampa and in Morris County. Reidy’s connections also extended to Pilsen. Three of his father’s brothers married women from there.
The scholarship seeks to reduce financial burdens.
“It’s to help students who need financial assistance, and, hopefully, they will afford to be able to stay and then practice law in Kansas,” he said.
Reidy spent his career in Washington, D.C., practicing international tax planning for large U.S. and foreign multinational companies. The practice, he said, often requires attorneys to work in major metropolitan areas.
Despite building his career outside Kansas, Reidy hopes the scholarship gives future students more flexibility in deciding whether to remain in rural communities after law school.
The scholarship is intended to continue permanently and will be awarded annually, although the university will determine recipients and award amounts.
Reidy encourages prospective students from rural communities to understand the broad range of opportunities available within the legal profession, from public service and county attorney work to specialized private-sector practice.
“Law is a great profession,” Reidy said. “The student needs to say, yes, law is a great profession, but how are you going to implement it? W