When Sandra Gully went to work for a country New South Wales law firm as a receptionist in her 40s, she never dreamed her boss would encourage her to study law and become a solicitor.
Ms Gully, 51, graduated from the University of New England in 2018, and is now one of seven solicitors with APJ Law, a firm with offices in Armidale and Glenn Innes.
Her boss, Peter Pardy, who has run the company for 30 years, said Ms Gully was one example of how to overcome the difficulties of attracting and retaining solicitors in regional areas.
"When I started to practice here in the 1970s, the work was mostly conveyancing, wills, arm and leg injuries, and motor vehicle offences," he said.
"Now it is all that and much more, including family law, succession planning allied to tax, commercial litigation and building construction.
"Country clients are very loyal, and we often deal with several generations of a family. It makes sense to provide career opportunities for good staff, who want to stay in the bush."
Mr Pardy would like to see hubs of regional solicitors working together to support each other, armed with good virtual technology.
In 2021, the Law Society of NSW found 49 per cent of the state's 37,000 or so practising solicitors work in the Sydney CBD, 34 per cent work in the city's suburbs, and only 12 per cent in regional areas.
In 2018, 19 local government areas in NSW had no practising solicitors at all, the Law Council of Australia found.
In the state's west, especially in some remote indigenous communities, many people are forced into representing themselves without the right legal knowledge and training.
NSW Law Society President, Joanne van der Plaat, said Census data showed more than a third of the state's population lives outside Sydney, yet distance was a disadvantage when it came to accessing justice.
Ms van der Plaat said people might have to drive six hours to see a solicitor or go to court and those distance issues could have consequences.
"It can range from not getting compensation, to not pursuing domestic violence matters or someone losing their liberty," she said.
"Technology is not always the answer because of connectivity problems in the bush and some people not knowing how to access or afford the technology.
"If you ask people why they choose to become a lawyer, most say because they want to help people, and I believe it's our duty to serve regional areas as well as we do cities."
Ms van der Plaat said it could be more rewarding practising as a solicitor in regional areas because of the variety.
"When I started out in Cooma, I appeared in court for a client in my first week on the job and you would not get that opportunity in a big Sydney firm where things are more specialised," she said.
"It's a different way of working in the country, [it's] an adjustment and you need to be be able to strike up a good conversation because country people love to talk."
Michael Adams, head of the University of New England Law School in Armidale, said the university has about 4,000 law students each year, but not all become solicitors and of those who do, not all choose to work in the bush.
"Solicitors in regional areas are not as scant as medical practitioners but they are thinly stretched, especially when it comes to Legal Aid," he said.
"It's ultimately a lifestyle choice. If solicitors starting out, or those with experience choose a country lifestyle and feel that services such as the medical care and schools and on offer on offer are right for them, there is plenty of work in the regions.
"Country solicitors have traditionally been generalists, doing a bit of everything, but we now also run courses to meet increased demand for specialist fields such as agriculture law, chemical regulation, natural resources, good governance and social responsibility."
Ms Gully said going to university as a mature age student was daunting at first, but the UNE course rules at the time recognised her body of employment as a legal receptionist and paralegal to overcome some entry requirements.
"I'd forgotten how to do an assignment and I studied while working and still raising children, so I really welcomed the mentoring from Peter and others in the firm," she said.
"Being a bit older, I have people skills and a body of knowledge about families and the things they face."
Ms Gully said she can drive to work in 10 minutes, and it's been a long time since she's spent a whole day at work doing the same thing.
"I'm not sure the opportunities I've had would come up so quickly in Sydney where I might have to spend five years doing the photocopying," she said.
"I grew up on a horse stud at Matheson which is halfway between Glen Innes and Inverell, and my intention was to be a saddler or jet pilot.
"This is a trajectory I had never thought I'd be on."
