Third generation solicitor Tom Goode, who was admitted to the roll of solicitors in the Supreme Court last week, comes from a long line of family members who entered the legal profession.

He graduated with a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Arts (Environmental Law) from Macquarie University.

His grandfather, Darryl Goode, joined the firm Farrell and Goode in 1964 with Andrew Thompson. The firm was then known as Thompson and Goode.

Dibbs and Farrell and Thompson and Goode amalgamated in 1970 to become Thompson, Farrell and Goode.

Later that partnership become Farrell Goode and McRae after Ian McRae had been a partner for some years.

Tom’s father Jason Goode joined the firm in 1985.

The name changed to Farrell Goode in 2000 - by that stage Ian McRae had been appointed a magistrate.

Farrell Goode joined with Matthews and Dangar of Narrandera in 2011 on the retirement of George Martin.

The firm now has five solicitors and four offices in Temora, Narrandera, Cootamundra and West Wyalong.

Both Jason and his son Tom studied at Macquarie University, with Tom starting to work for his dad during the final year of his course last year.

“It’s a lot better living in the country,” said Tom.

“You’re only working 40 hours, the cost of living is a lot cheaper, houses are cheaper, you can actually buy a house outside of Sydney, so it’s just a hell of a lot better.”

Like so many other country lawyers, proud Dad Jason’s work/life balance is so good he lives on acreage just five minutes’ drive or half an hour’s walk from the office in Temora. He gets eight hours sleep a night.

Father and son played a few games together for the Temora Tuskers rugby union team.

Tom has since switched to the Temora Dragons rugby league club, which has produced a host of NRL champions including player and coach Trent Barrett and current Penrith and NSW State of Origin stars Liam Martin, Zac Lomax and Angus Creighton.

A Law Society of NSW spokesperson said it was difficult to recruit lawyers in South Western NSW and the Riverina, so firms like Farrell Goode are now training and even breeding their own.

“Sport is helping bind these solicitors to their communities in a region famous for its sporting heroes.

They are dealing with issues such as skyrocketing land prices causing big problems for farm succession planning; new water legislation and statewide problems such as a shortage of magistrates and drug-related crime,” the spokesperson said.

Joint president of the Riverina division of the Law Society of NSW Jason Goode said while he has been heavily involved in sporting committees, these days his main community involvement was as a Shire Councillor at Temora.

“Temora is a thriving town with a low crime rate and its pro-active council had built its own medical centre and imaging facility, and the Aviation Museum, with several flying displays a year, had become a big tourist attraction,” he said.

Jason Goode was a sole practitioner for a couple of decades but wanted to have holidays - realising he would have to expand to be able to do that, he soon encountered the common problem of lawyers coming from the city but not staying.

He developed a successful traineeship system whereby prospective lawyers do an “apprenticeship” on-the-job while he covers them to study law part-time online. He also gives them leave for study and exams and trips to Sydney for weekend schools.

“They start by doing a lot of the back-office things,” Jason said.

“They learn how everything works, which can be beneficial for their course. If they’re studying, say land law, and doing some conveyancing here, they know the practicalities of it, they can relate and it sticks with them.

“I talk to them about what to do and why we do it with different processes and then basically by the time they’re a solicitor they have had four or five years practice and on-the-job training, and they hit the ground running.”

The Goode system produced partner Mitchell Flakelar and the lawyers for his Narrandera office, Adam Mitchell and Jack Langley. The practice has grown to 13 staff, with an office also at Cootamundra.