Sara Norman

Sara Norman is the managing attorney of the Prison Law Office, a nonprofit that advocates for the rights of youth and adults behind bars in California. She has been with the office for fifteen years and specializes in representing prisoners with disabilities and incarcerated juveniles. She is counsel for the plaintiff class in Clark v. California, a class action on behalf of thousands of California prisoners with developmental disabilities, and is plaintiff's counsel in Farrell v. Cate, a taxpayer lawsuit that has forced sweeping reforms in California's juvenile justice system.  Along with Farrell co-counsel, she was awarded a California Lawyer of the Year Award by the State Bar Foundation in 2005. She was awarded the Pacific Juvenile 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. Ms. Norman was a member of the litigation team in Brown v. Plata, in which the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed a lower court order requiring California to significantly reduce its severe prison overcrowding, an accomplishment for which the team was selected as a finalist for the 2010 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award from the Public Justice Foundation. She graduated from Harvard College in 1990 and Yale Law School in 1995 and clerked for Judge Robert Carter in the Southern District of New York.