Upstream Lawyering: A Framework for Poverty Law

This Article introduces an upstream lawyering framework within the context of the history of poverty law and impact lawyering. While there have been several theories promoting systems change work, the upstream framework, stemming from public health theories and championed by medical-legal partnerships, offers a model for promoting and informing systemic policy. Using the public health concept of upstreaming, this Article explores lawyering practices that can be utilized to address the root causes of social and legal drivers of health inequity, poverty, and oppression. Part I of this Article provides a refreshed overview of the history of poverty law and civil rights law and the ebbs and flows of the use of impact lawyering to achieve systemic change. Part II explores the concept of upstream practice in public health and medicine and its applications to the law as modelled by medical-legal partnerships. Part III outlines a vision for upstream lawyering as a framework for returning to the core purpose of poverty law and a critical tool for addressing root causes of the structures and systems driving poverty and oppression. Part III also offers guidance on concrete methods and strategies for practicing law upstream.