Sanjeev Anand is working on an incentive program to keep law graduates in the province.

The College of Law is part of a collaborative effort to rejuvenate Saskatchewan’s aging lawyer demographic.

The dean of the college, Sanjeev Anand, is working with the Canadian Bar Association, Law Society of Saskatchewan and the provincial government to create an incentive program for law graduates to stay and work in the province.

The incentive program may include debt relief and waiving graduates’ tuition if they article in a rural community in Saskatchewan for three years.

Anand said the three years after graduation are when law graduates, who average in their mid-twenties, typically look to settle down.

Anand said the program is still in the “most preliminary stages.”

The program’s goal is to deal with a looming demographic crisis with Saskatchewan’s rural lawyers. He said the average age of Saskatchewan’s rural lawyers is in their late 50s, many of whom are approaching retirement with no successors lined up to take their place.

Citizens of towns and small cities may be left travelling to Saskatoon or Regina in search of legal services or forced to forego them altogether.

Anand said the fact that lawyers are often involved in the political life and other parts of the community adds to the problem.

Lawyers are “often the pillars of leadership in the community,” Anand said. “They’re involved in every facet of the community and because of their skill set, they’re very valuable to other community members.”

The College of Law already highlights a rural community in Saskatchewan each year in hopes to attract graduates to the area. However, Anand said graduates, after staying about a period of one year, are often drawn back to larger centres because of the social isolation they experience.

Another factor that may deter graduates is the misconception that the work isn’t varied, though Anand said there are many opportunities for corporate and commercial law.

“The idea that you can engage in lots of diverse forms of practice in a small center has become much more of a reality,” he said.

About half of the university’s law graduates remain in Saskatoon while the other half move to Calgary or Regina. Anand said that many of the college’s students come from Alberta and are drawn back after graduation.

Second-year-law-student Desirée Lalonde said many of her classmates are from out of province and plan on returning home after graduation.

Lalonde plans to stay in Saskatoon.

“It’s an advantage to stay here because we have a lot of opportunities to meet lawyers,” Lalonde said. “We create our network here.”