Sarah Vendzules, Esq.

Trial Attorney 

 

 

Sarah graduated from New York University School of Law in 2008. She was awarded the Vanderbilt Medal for outstanding contribution to the school of law for her work with Law Students for Human Rights, a student group that allows first-year students to do substantive legal work in partnership with human rights and social justice organizations. At NYU Sarah participated in two immigration clinics where she advised defenders on the immigration consequences of pleas and represented clients in removal proceedings in immigration court. She also, as part of her clinical work, filed a lawsuit in federal court successfully challenging United States Citizenship and Immigration Services’ denial of Temporary Protected Status to people with non-criminal violations and traffic infractions, and designed a curriculum to teach immigrant communities strategies for dealing with police and immigration officials. Sarah spent her law school summers working for the Refugee Law Project in Kampala, Uganda, interning with the Innocence Project in New York City, and working on a capital appeal in Alabama with the law firm Sidley Austin, LLP. Before law school Sarah taught English for two years in Osaka, Japan.

 

At Brooklyn Defender Services Sarah is responsible for helping defenders and clients understand the immigration consequences of a plea. She also counsels BDS’s immigrant clients on their immigration status and, where possible, helps them find routes to legal status and/or citizenship.