Medical-Legal Partnerships Reinvigorate Systems Lawyering Using an Upstream Approach

Abstract

The upstream framework as presented in public health and medicine considers health problems from a preventive, source-based perspective, seeking to understand and address the root causes of poor health. Medical-legal partnerships have demonstrated the value of this upstream framework in the practice of law and engage in upstream lawyering through alternative methods of identifying legal issues, creative interdisciplinary and preventive problem solving, and by utilizing systemic advocacy to address the root causes of injustices and health inequities. This article explores upstreaming and its use by MLPs in reframing legal practice to address root causes. Using a case study, this article further explores how medical-legal partnerships have reinvigorated systems advocacy by practicing upstream lawyering.

Keywords: upstream, medical-legal partnership, advocacy, advocacy, justice