Hometown Advantage

The verdict is in on Delta lawyers

Photography by Matthew Wood

As thousands of students prepare to graduate from law school this month, many are faced with the prospect of hunting for employment. In a profession where firms are consolidating, jobs are being outsourced to other countries and competition is fierce, this can be a daunting process. When hiring, most firms look for an attorney with several years of experience, said James Upshaw of Upshaw Williams in Greenwood.

Brad Hathaway of Campbell DeLong in Greenville said his firm recently hired a new associate. The firm bases its hiring decisions not only on a demonstration of excellence in law school, but also on ties to the Delta, as the firm has seen how this impacts retention.

Hathaway described the hiring market as tight, but is quick to point out his evidence is anecdotal and that this isn’t a new problem. “Anybody contemplating law school ought to do their due diligence and try to make an informed decision about what the market will look like in three years, after law school,” he said.

This doesn’t mean there isn’t work out there. “The jobs may not come easy, the work may not be as readily available in some cases, but there’s always room for new attorneys to make their mark on the profession,” Hathaway said.

While Jacks, Adams, Norquist in Cleveland isn’t hiring at the moment, David Norquist agreed there are positions for good attorneys. “We’ve been larger than we are now, we’ve been smaller than we are now, and we’ve found a size that is optimal for us and the way we like to practice law,” he explained.

While Delta law firms are busy, they differ on whether or not to specialize. For Bill Luckett of Luckett Tyner Law Firm in Clarksdale, most lawyers, even those in small towns, have to limit their practices to a specialized area. Hathaway feels it’s impractical for a firm in the Mississippi Delta to limit itself to a practice area or a region. “We’re an 82-county practice in this state and we represent clients in the State of Arkansas as well,” he said.

Other attorneys adhere to this theory of diversification. “In a small town, if you limit your practice to one area, there may be times when that area of practice may be big, vibrant, strong,” explained Kirkham Povall of Povall & Jeffreys in Cleveland, where he also serves as an alderman. “Other times it may slow down and you need to fill in the gaps with other types of practice.”

With a mix of specialist and generalists, the Delta has most legal areas covered, with the added benefit of location. “All Delta attorneys are better suited to try cases in the Delta because they have knowledge of the area,” explained Norquist. This includes familiarity with the jurisdiction, the potential jury panel and judges.

“The Delta is chock full of excellent lawyers capable of handling anything,” said Andy Dulaney of the Dulaney Law Firm in Tunica, where he also serves as the attorney for Tunica County. “Not to take anything away from Memphis or Jackson. Every Delta town has several excellent lawyers in them. The spirit of professionalism and cooperation among Delta lawyers is very strong.”

Many of those Delta firms claim a long history in the area. Campbell DeLong is celebrating 150 years of continuous succession. “That legacy is meaningful not only to me, but I think it simply speaks to our dedication to the area,” explained Hathaway. “We have a very bright future here and have every intention of taking Campbell DeLong into the next 150 years.”

The Dulaney Law Firm started as a family business in 1892 and has included Dulaney’s great-great uncle, his grandfather and his uncle. It now consists of Dulaney, his brother and his father. “We get up early and come work hard every day, work hard for our clients and try to charge reasonable fees,” Dulaney explained. “I guess it’s worked.”

Some firms are expanding their practice areas to attract new clients or serve developing needs. Last September, Luckett had three clients seek him out for entertainment law representation, an area that now makes up 20 percent of his practice. He now specializes in entertainment law for filmmakers, a growing industry in the Delta.

“Entertainment law is just a form of specialized contract law,” Luckett explained. “There wasn’t anybody out there doing film or movie entertainment law.” In developing that area of his practice, Luckett now has seven projects: several where he serves as the attorney and others where he is both the attorney and an active business partner.

“That’s been fun,” he said. “Mississippi recently enacted very favorable, as compared to other states, movie-making incentives.” Thanks to these new benefits, and of course the filming of “The Help” in Clarksdale, the spotlight is on Mississippi’s burgeoning film industry.

A number of firms offer multiple offices to better serve the needs of their clients. Upshaw Williams, which is primarily an insurance defense firm, has offices in Greenwood, Jackson and Hernando. “Hernando and DeSoto County is a growing area of the state of Mississippi,” explained Upshaw. One of the Delta’s largest firms, it has 14 attorneys in Greenwood, which also staffs the Hernando office, and five in Jackson.

Luckett Tyner has offices in Clarksdale and Sumner. “We have a big practice for a small town,” said Luckett. “We’re very busy right now. I don’t anticipate it slowing down any.” His partner Robert M. Tyner, Jr., does a good deal of agricultural work. “There is a lot of interest in Mississippi farmland now by out-of-towners,” Luckett explained. “They see it as a good investment.”

The firm also saves clients time and money with its access to three airplanes. This turns a five-hour drive to Gulfport into an hour and a half flight, said Luckett, changing an overnight stay into a day trip. The three-hour drive to Jackson is a 45-minute flight. It’s not only convenient, but saves money for the client, since most defense cases are charged by the hour. “Even though the miles cost more in a plane, the time savings more than offsets the added per mile expense,” said Luckett. And with cases in Gulfport, south Mississippi and Jackson, it makes business travel more convenient.

Another convenience in today’s legal profession is technology. Dulaney recalls the days when his firm received a new law book to add to its library almost daily. “Today we rarely get a book in,” he said. “For the most part, it’s all web-based, online and email. It’s a lot easier to access online and search rather than look it up.” Listservs maintained by various professional and educational organizations also keep attorneys up to date.

Technology can save firms a good deal of money. Dulaney remembered a case he had in 1997 with a very significant express mail bill. The very next year, a similar case relied very heavily on email, dropping the express mail bill by 75 percent. Just the same, technology comes with a price tag: “If your Internet goes out, you’re just about stopped until you get (it) going again,” Dulaney said.

Professional organizations offer information-sharing and networking opportunities, as well as leadership roles. Many Delta law firms belong to a number of these groups. “I can’t imagine any organization we don’t belong to,” said Upshaw, noting the groups provide a venue to meet other attorneys working in the same practice areas.

“They are what you make of them,” said Dulaney, who said professional organizations offer the opportunity to work with contemporaries facing similar issues. He is the past president of the Mississippi Association of County Board Attorneys and has served on the Mississippi Bar Association’s government law and gaming law sections’ executive committees.

One of the greatest challenges facing the Delta’s attorneys today is competition. Norquist calls it “the freedom of information,” often seen in the form of advertising from out-of-state law firms. In the past, Norquist said, if someone in the Delta was injured and needed an attorney, he would look for representation locally, either someone he knew or someone recommended to him.

Today, with a barrage of advertisements, Norquist sees a fair number of people leaving the Delta to seek legal counsel because of an ad they saw on television. “By doing that, it takes business out of the Delta and you’re using someone who may not have that personal connection with them that a Delta attorney would,” he explained.

F. Ewin Henson III of Upshaw Williams said there is also more competition among the companies and firms representing insurers, and that insurers are paring down on the number of firms they use. In addition, he’s heard rumblings of legal work being outsourced to India.

Economic development remains a major concern in the Delta, shared by all professions and industries. “We’re fortunate with a strong farming economy, Delta State and other jobs, but finding other jobs to move into the area is a critical part for everyone’s success,” said Povall.  DBJ