Experience
Experience
Experience
With more than 25 years of experience representing youth and adults in prisons, jails, and juvenile halls, Sara has won court orders for individuals and classes of people to secure their rights to medical care, mental health care, disability access, education, and other fundamental human rights. She is counsel for the plaintiff class in Clark v. California, a class action on behalf of thousands of California prisoners with intellectual disabilities, Gray v. County of Riverside, a class action lawsuit to improve health care in one of the largest county jail systems in the U.S., and Farrell v. Cate, a taxpayer lawsuit that forced sweeping reforms in California's juvenile justice system.
Education
Experience
Experience
Sara graduated from Harvard College in 1990 and received her J.D. from Yale Law School in 1995. She clerked for Judge Robert Carter in the Southern District of New York . She was admitted to the California State Bar in July 1997.
Accolades
Experience
Accolades
Sara was awarded a California Lawyer of the Year Award by the State Bar Foundation in 2005, the Pacific Juvenile Defender Center’s Defender of the Year Award in 2006, and a Pioneer Award from the Center for Health Justice in 2009. In 2008 and 2009, she was named one of the top women litigators in California by the San Francisco and Los Angeles Daily Journals. As a member of the Brown v. Plata litigation team, in which the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed an order requiring California to significantly reduce its severe prison overcrowding, she was selected as a finalist for the 2010 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award from the Public Justice Foundation.
Presentations at conferences and workshops
- From the plaintiffs’ perspective (speaker), Americans for Effective Law Enforcement Jail and Prison Legal Issues Seminar, Las Vegas, NV, 2023
- COVID-19 Litigation Strategies (panelist), Prison Law and Advocacy Conference, Northwestern University Law School, 2022
- COVID-19 crisis in prisons, jails, and detention facilities (panelist), Practicing Law Institute: Prison Law 2021
- Culture change (moderator and panelist), National Prisoners’ Advocates Conference, University of Denver College of Law, 2018
- A growing crisis: what’s happening in our jails and why we all need to talk about correctional oversight (panelist), Annual Conference of National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement, 2018
- Health Effects of Solitary Confinement (keynote co-speaker), Sick of the System: Health and Wellness in the Carceral State, UCLA Law School, 2017
- Medical care (moderator and panelist), National Prisoners’ Advocates Conference, Loyola School of Law, 2016
- The Role of the Client in Prison Conditions Litigation (panelist), Prisoners’ Advocates Conference, Loyola (New Orleans) College of Law, 2014
- Exploring different approaches to the use of incarceration: looking across the pond (panelist), American Correctional Association Conference, 2014
- Resources to improve patient care and staffing and resolving barriers to care, SEIU Nurse Alliance of California Annual Detention/Mental Health Day, 2013 and 2014
- California juvenile justice system: reform and realignment (panelist), Movimiento: The Movements of Latinos in Education and Advocacy, UCLA Law School, 2012
- Prisoners with developmental disabilities and related conditions: the potential for collaborate remedies, Practicing Law Institute: Prison Law 2012
- Isolation in U.S. Prisons (moderator and panelist), Center for Constitutional Rights, 2011
- Psychology & Law: Criminal Justice (In)effectiveness (panelist), Critical Eye on Criminal Justice speaker series, Golden Gate University Law School, 2011
- Mental health claims: moving past traditional models (panelist), Imprisoned: The 13thAnnual Liman Public Interest Colloquium, Yale Law School, 2010
- Prop 21, SB 81, and Department of Juvenile Justice: where are we now? (panelist), Judicial Council of California’s Beyond the Bench annual conference, 2010
- Juvenile justice reform in California, American Society of Criminology Annual Conference, 2010
- Monitoring juvenile justice facilities (panelist), National Protection and Advocacy Skills Building Conference, Washington, DC, 2010
- On the Inside: Securing Prisoners’ Rights (keynote speaker), Public Interest Law Association, University of Texas-Austin Law School, 2009
- Representing detained clients (panelist), Forty Years of Clinical Education at Yale: Rights, Remedies, and Legal Services, Yale Law School, 2009
- Juvenile justice reform in California (panelist), Annual Conference of Western Society of Criminology, 2008
- Solving conditions of confinement problems for youth in the delinquency system (panelist), Judicial Council of California’s Beyond the Bench annual conference, 2008
- The State of prisoner healthcare in California (panelist), Health Justice Action Conference, 2008
- California’s prison crisis: fixing a broken system (panel moderator), So Goes the Nation: How California Reflects National Trends in Issues of Race and Poverty, UC-Hastings Law School, 2007
- Systemic approaches to ensure protection of the rights of persons with disabilities in correctional facilities (invited to address Legal Directors Meeting), National Protection and Advocacy Skills Building Conference, Orlando, FL, 2005
- Restructuring youth corrections in California (panelist), Ernst van Loben Sels Conference on Restructuring Youth Corrections in California, 2005
- Juvenile facilities from the client’s perspective (panel organizer and panelist), Prisoners’ Rights Litigation: A Workshop for Plaintiff Attorneys, USC Law School, 2005
- New substantive areas of law (panelist addressing litigation against juvenile institutions), Prisoners’ Rights Litigation: A Workshop for Experienced Plaintiff Attorneys, Yale Law School, 2004
- Disabled and elderly prisoners (workshop leader), Seeking Justice for the Imprisoned – Spotlight on the Invisible Prisoners, San Francisco State University, 2000
- Disabled prisoners and the prison industrial complex (panelist), Critical Resistance: Beyond the Prison Industrial Complex, UC-Berkeley, 1998
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