Poverty Law and the Lawyer's Role

This class covers a range of poverty law issues at the national, state, and local level, with a focus on Charlottesville and Albemarle County. It covers the major themes in federal poverty law policy and then focuses on national and local policies on specific issues, such as housing and family/welfare policies. The course will also explore poverty measurements, the distinctions between urban versus rural poverty, and the relationship between poverty and racial discrimination. It will consider the role of lawyers in planning, achieving, and implementing reforms, and particularly the techniques, strategies, challenges, and struggles in ensuring that people living in poverty have access to the advocacy they need to navigate complex legal and regulatory systems. This will be an interactive and community-engaged course, interweaving how the concepts we study in the classroom are felt in the low-income and marginalized communities in Charlottesville and Albemarle County and surrounding area. Students will consider the needs of local neighborhoods and observe court proceedings. Evaluation will be based on short presentations supported by state and local research periodically during the semester, with a final project and no final exam.