Sarah Lorr is an associate professor at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. Her research focuses on disability law and family regulation, specifically how substantive legal doctrine and ostensibly neutral standards subordinate poor, nonwhite, and disabled parents in the family regulation system. She also studies the overapplication of guardianships to adults with disabilities, especially intellectual disabilities, and has fought against the imposition and continuation of guardianships in legal proceedings. Professor Lorr’s recent scholarship has appeared or is forthcoming in the Stanford Law Review, the California Law Review, the Oklahoma Law Review, and the Columbia Journal of Race & the Law. Professor Lorr is a member of the Academic Advisory Board of the Family Justice Law Center and the Chair-Elect of the AALS Section on Disability Law.
Prior to joining Maryland Carey Law, Professor Lorr clerked for Judge Joan N. Ericksen, U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, and for Judge Boyce F. Martin III, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Subsequently, she was a supervising attorney at Brooklyn Defender Services Family Defense Practice in Brooklyn, N.Y., providing free legal representation to parents at risk of losing their children to foster care. In that capacity, she also represented parents in a wide range of matters related to family law, including termination of parental rights, custody, and family offense proceedings. She focused on keeping families together and protecting her clients’ fundamental right to parent. Professor Lorr previously taught at Brooklyn Law School where she co-directed the Disability and Civil Rights Clinic and taught doctrinal law.