Vermont Bar Journal, Vol. 40, No. 2 Fall 2014, Vol. 40, No. 3 | Page 7

BP: Before we wrap up, I want to touch
on two more topics. The first one is your
work in helping to design the VBA Incubator Project, in which three lawyers are now
getting started. I know you have worked
closely with Mary Ashcroft, our Legal Services Coordinator and Margaret Barry, who
is a professor at the law school. Talk more
about this project. Why did we do it? What
do you think the future of the program is?
DR: First, I want to say that I am incredibly proud of what we have done with the
incubator program. We owe Mary and Margaret a great deal of thanks for the enormous amount of work that they have done.
We started the incubator because we saw
an emerging problem and knew we had to
do something to address it. There is a growing population of people graduating from
law school who have passed the bar but
haven’t really been able to find their start
in the profession. We were seeing more
and more of these people turning to solo
practice, but they lacked the training, skills,
and mentoring that they needed to make
a solid start. On top of all that, these graduates were and are starting with hundreds
of thousands of dollars in student debt. As
a board, we saw these people going out,
graduating from law school, putting their
shingles out, wanting to practice law but
really either being frustrated with it or getting into a lot of trouble with it. We realized that we needed to provide some sort
of structure or service because these young
lawyers will eventually replace the existing small firm and solo practitioners who
form the backbone of legal practice in this
state. If we simply ignore this population,
or let market corrections take care of them,
I think we end up in a situation like South
Dakota, where they are subsidizing young
lawyers to practice in rural areas. That problem is on our doorstep. Take a town like
Northfield. Fifteen years ago, it had six attorneys; today it is down to two. None of
the legal needs in that town have changed,
and the population has not shifted, but the
local attorneys available to handle those
legal problems have gone. In looking at
these issues, we decided to develop the incubator as a way of giving young attorneys
seeking to establish a solo practice some
structure, some framework, some supwww.vtbar.org

port—not hand-holding—but a framework
where they could learn some basic, practical skills to build a practice on their own. I
have been amazed at how successful it has
been. You were telling me, Bob, the other day, that since that VPR program aired,
you have gotten a number of emails and inquiries of people that want to take advantage of it and I have been stopped a couple of times on the street a couple of times
by people who said “Can you tell me more
about this incubator program?” or “I would
love to participate in this.” The demand is
there; the desire is there. I see it growing,
and I see it as a very important part of how
we ensure that the next generation of attorneys comes to take the place of attorneys
that are beginning to think about retiring or
doing something else. This is how we make
sure that access to legal services and access
to justice in Vermont continues throughout
the state and not just in small pockets in the
larger cities.

Interview with VBA President Dan Richardson

claims ranging from straightforward to very
complicated. It is amazing at how successful some of these parties are in presenting
their cases and advocating for themselves,
but many more struggle to identify what
are often meritorious claims or legal theories. I think that it illustrates the larger difficulties the courts face with so many selfrepresented litigants who struggle, not with
the passion or desire for justice, but with
developing their cases before they walk
into the courtroom.

BP: I don’t want to end this without asking you about your work with the Vermont
Bar Foundation. You have been on that
board now for a couple of years?
DR: Yes, three and a half years.
BP: We have talked a lot about some of
the challenges the Foundation is facing because of lack of revenue. Because of some
of these problems you have had to decide
how to allocate scarce revenue dollars to
your grantees. If you want to touch on that
subject, tell us really what you think about
where the VBF goes from here.
DR: I got involved with the VBF because
of my involvement with the VBA. It was so
clear that the VBF does such incredible work
for everyone in Vermont, but particularly in
making sure that legal servi