Sarah M. Rich is Senior Strategic Oversight Attorney at Democracy Forward.

Sarah came to Democracy Forward in 2024 following a decade at the Southern Poverty Law Center, where she represented mainly noncitizen clients in litigation on workers’ rights, asylum, detention, access to counsel, and the entanglement of local law enforcement and federal immigration enforcement. She also worked as a policy analyst and advocate on local, state, and federal immigration issues, and developed expertise on the far-right’s anti-immigrant narratives and networks. Prior to SPLC, Sarah spent two years at Texas RioGrande Legal Aid in El Paso, where she represented farmworkers, trafficking victims, and other indigent clients in West Texas and southern New Mexico. Sarah also clerked for the Hon. Richard A. Paez on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Sarah completed her law degree at U.C. Berkeley School of Law and received a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. She received her B.A. in International Relations and French from Scripps College. Between college and graduate school, Sarah served for two years in the Peace Corps in Mali, West Africa, working primarily on infant and maternal health projects.

Sarah is a member of the Georgia, Texas, and California bars.