Sarah Belton, Esq. Named Clinical Supervising Attorney and Lecturer in Law for the Mills Legal Clinic’s Racial Justice Project

Sarah Belton Clinical Supervising Attorney for Racial Justice Project
Sarah Belton at Stanford University
Photography by: Christine Baker

The Mills Legal Clinic at Stanford Law School is excited to announce the hiring of Sarah Belton as a Clinical Supervising Attorney and Lecturer in Law.  Ms. Belton joins the Clinic to develop the Racial Justice Project—a pilot that will allow advanced clinical students opportunities to address systematic racism and persistent inequities.

The new Racial Justice Project will expand the Clinic’s existing efforts on racial justice.  In addition to participating in the ongoing work of MLC to ensure diversity, equity, and inclusion in teaching and advocacy work, the Racial Justice Project will engage in substantive legal work to address harms to communities of color.  The project also aims to grow additional opportunities for collaboration across clinics and relies upon the broad and varied expertise of MLC faculty and staff.  Advanced clinical students will have the opportunity to participate in the Racial Justice Project during the ’22-’23 academic year.

“We are delighted to welcome Sarah as we deepen our racial justice work within the Clinic,” said Jayashri Srikantiah, Associate Dean of Clinical Education. “The new Racial Justice Project is a direct outgrowth of feedback from students, faculty, staff, and community members.”

Ms. Belton comes to the Clinic with significant experience in systemic reform, including investigation, litigation, and policy advocacy. She most recently served as the Supervising Deputy Attorney General for the Bureau of Children’s Justice, a unit focused on children’s rights in the Civil Rights Enforcement Section of the California Department of Justice.  There, Ms. Belton worked on investigations involving education equity, youth conditions of confinement, and services for students with special education needs.  These investigations concluded with stipulated judgments requiring entities to change and develop policies, procedures, and practices.  She oversaw litigation addressing the attachment of immigration enforcement conditions to federal grants, restrictions on the use of federal dollars to support local education needs during the Covid-19 pandemic, family separation, and the detention of immigrant youth.  Ms. Belton has a demonstrated commitment to social justice and equity issues and has also worked for Legal Services for Children, where she represented children and youth in civil legal proceedings, and Public Justice, where she worked on impact litigation.

Ms. Belton is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Stanford University (’05). She clerked for the Honorable Algenon L. Marbley on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.

Learn more about the Mills Legal Clinic’s offerings, including its commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism.