Sarah Ortlip-Sommers

Sarah will join Public Justice's Access to Justice Project, where she will litigate tort claims on behalf of immigrants in for-profit detention to build case law establishing that detention corporations owe detainees a strong duty of care -- making it easier for immigrants to challenge abusive conditions and gain access to counsel and release. She will also litigate under a new California statute that allows immigrants to sue private facilities that fail to meet the standards of care mandated by their contracts with ICE. Finally, Sarah will leverage Public Justice's broad network, including a coalition of immigrant advocacy organizations, to begin laying the groundwork for similar legislation in other states where many immigrants are detained by the private prison industry.

Sarah became committed to a legal career advocating for immigrants' rights while working with an immigration attorney serving asylum seekers on Martha's Vineyard, where Sarah grew up. She holds a B.A. in Political Science from Stanford University and a J.D. from Columbia Law School. At Columbia, she participated in the Immigrants' Rights Clinic, served as Editor-in-Chief of the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law, and spent her summers at the ACLU of New Jersey and the Center for Reproductive Rights. After law school, Sarah clerked for the Hon. Nitza I. Quiñones Alejandro on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Fellowship type: Justice Catalyst

Organization: Public Justice

Project name: Expanding and Protecting Legal Remedies for Immigrants in For-Profit Detention Centers