Nebraska

Rural NE county attorneys, public defenders confront 'legal desert' in hiring new lawyers • Nebraska Examiner

Published

2 years ago

June 24, 2024

Rural NE county attorneys, public defenders confront 'legal desert' in hiring new lawyers • Nebraska Examiner

LINCOLN — Three decades ago, Hall County Public Defender Gerald Piccolo could get more than 100 applicants for a job opening just by posting a notice on the bulletin boards at Nebraska’s two law colleges and sharing a notice with the state bar association.

Now, he said, he’s lucky to get a handful of aspiring defense attorneys to apply.

(Getty Images)

“I haven’t ever received more than 10 applicants for a job in the past 10 years,” Piccolo said.

It’s part of a national trend of fewer law graduates due to decreased enrollment in law schools, which have seen a 21% drop in students since peaking in 2010.

The shortage of potential new prosecutors and public defenders is presenting an even bigger problem in Nebraska’s smaller cities and rural areas, where it’s difficult to convince some college graduates to relocate.

Bill derailed

At Piccolo’s central Nebraska office, for instance, four of his eight lawyer positions were unfilled in 2022 and 2023, and two remain open today.

“It’s just more attractive to live in Lincoln or Omaha than live in Grand Island, Madison County or Scottsbluff,” he said. “It’s easier to stay in Omaha or Lincoln because that’s where the law schools are.”

State Sen. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln. (Aaron Sanderford/Nebraska Examiner)

A bill to address the workforce shortage, however, got derailed in the Nebraska Legislature toward the end of the 2024 session due to a disagreement between the state’s prosecutors and defense attorneys over the incentives that should be offered.

State Sen. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln, who is a lawyer, had introduced legislation to expand financial incentives offered to “public service” attorneys — like county prosecutors and public defenders — who located in rural areas through the state’s long-running Legal Education for Public Service and Rural Practice Loan Repayment Assistance Program.

That program provides student loan repayment assistance to counties with less than 15,000 residents in an effort to address “legal deserts” in the state.

12 of 93 counties without lawyers

Twelve of the state’s 93 counties currently have no active lawyers, and 18 have three or fewer attorneys, according to the Nebraska State Bar Association.

That shortage is projected to expand to 16 counties with no lawyers, and 32 with three or fewer by 2027, due to retirement of lawyers in rural areas.

“We hear from attorneys in rural Nebraska that they’d like to retire (but) their clients won’t let them.”

– Liz Neeley, executive director, Nebraska Bar Association

“We hear from attorneys in rural Nebraska that they’d like to retire (but) their clients won’t let them,” Liz Neeley, the executive director of the Nebraska State Bar Association told a legislative committee this spring.

That’s because there’s a lack of replacements for them, Neeley said. Some public defender/county attorney jobs have been vacant for six months in rural counties without a single applicant, she said, and a few jobs have been vacant for more than a year.

Under Sen. Conrad’s proposed Legislative Bill 1195, the loan repayment program would be expanded to larger counties, such as Grand Island, Kearney, Hastings and Scottsbluff.

Killed by salary parity

Funding for expanding the program, about $500,000, was projected to come from the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office, which has amassed a reserve fund of millions of dollars via legal settlements it obtains from class-action lawsuits.

But LB 1195, as originally proposed, failed to pass. The issue that killed it was salary parity — whether deputy county attorneys should be paid the same salary as deputy public defenders.

The logo for the Office of the Nebraska Attorney General. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)

“It was really disappointing,” Conrad said. “We were all rowing in the same direction, and then we got tripped up on this parity issue.”

Representatives of the state’s county attorneys argued that the jobs are different, and shouldn’t get the same pay, and that local counties — not the state — should decide what they pay their employees. The parity issue arose during later crafting of the bill, and ended the county attorneys’ support for it.

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Nebraska

Hail, rain, snow move into eastern Nebraska, western Iowa

Published

3 hours ago

March 11, 2026

Press Room

Hail, rain, snow move into eastern Nebraska, western Iowa

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – An active weather pattern is moving into the region starting tonight, bringing some snow into the region, according to KTIV’s forecast in Sioux City.

A First Alert 6 viewer sent footage of the storms while traveling on Interstate 80 near West Branch, Iowa.

Hail near West Branch, Iowa

TUESDAY NIGHT

In Siouxland, a batch of precipitation moves in after midnight. It could initially start as rain, but most of the precipitation will fall as snow. Snow showers will likely last through sunrise on Wednesday morning.

The snow will stay light with accumulations near an inch or less. This could create some slick spots on the Wednesday morning commute. Temperatures will probably fall a bit below the freezing mark.

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Nebraska

Shelter in place issued after suspicious object found in mailbox

Published

15 hours ago

March 10, 2026

Press Room

Shelter in place issued after suspicious object found in mailbox

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. — UPDATE: Grand Island Police said around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday that the shelter in place order has been lifted .

GIPD said the item was retrieved by the Nebraska State Patrol Bomb Squad, who is investigating.

The area has also now been reopened.

ORIGINAL STORY:

The Grand Island Police Department has cordoned off a local block and is urging residents to shelter in place.

According to GIPD, officers responded to the 4300 block of Sherwood Road just before 2:00 p.m. Tuesday afternoon. A resident reported finding a suspicious cylindrical object wrapped in duct tape inside a home.

The Nebraska State Patrol Bomb Squad has been called to the scene to investigate the device.

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Nebraska

68 students chosen as Nebraska Young Artist Award winners

Published

1 day ago

March 10, 2026

Press Room

68 students chosen as Nebraska Young Artist Award winners

The University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts has announced the winners of the 29th annual Nebraska Young Artist Awards.

The awards recognize 11th-grade students from Nebraska for their talents in visual art, dance, music, theatre, and film and emerging media arts.

Sixty-eight students from more than 40 high schools across the state have been selected as award winners and will be invited to a day of activities on campus March 25.

“Our faculty always look forward to this event,” said Chris Watson, director of recruitment for the college and coordinator of the awards. “They love meeting enthusiastic young artists, working with them and celebrating their talent.”

Students applied for the recognition and submitted an example of their work. Applications were received from 92 students. Hixson-Lied College faculty chose the winners.

Award winners were also asked to nominate the teacher who provided them with the greatest amount of mentoring and support in the development of their special talents.

Each student will receive a certificate and an original piece of artwork commissioned for the event and created by a School of Art, Art History and Design student.

Following is a list of award winners by hometown, with their high school and specialty area(s).

Aurora: