Equal Justice Works Honors Taylor Sartor with the 2025 Distinguished Alumni Award

2018 Fellow Taylor Sartor is the Senior Staff Attorney at the L. David Shear Children’s Law Center of Bay Area Legal Services, Inc.

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 30, 2025—Equal Justice Works, the nation’s largest facilitator of opportunities in public interest law, to honor Taylor Sartor, Senior Staff Attorney at the L. David Shear Children’s Law Center of Bay Area Legal Services, Inc. as the 2025 recipient of the Equal Justice Works Distinguished Alumni Award at the Scales of Justice event on November 5, 2025.  

Taylor, a 2018 Equal Justice Works Fellow sponsored by Greenberg Traurig, LLP and The Florida Bar Foundation, worked at the L. David Shear Children’s Law Center of Bay Area Legal Services, Inc., where she provided holistic legal services and trainings, and collaborated with community organizations to improve outcomes for young adults in the foster care system. During her Fellowship, Taylor specialized in representing youth and young adults in group home care and successfully advocated for over 85 percent of her clients to transition into family-like settings. 

“Taylor is a fantastic example of just how much of a difference one person can make in a public interest law career,” said Verna Williams, CEO of Equal Justice Works. “In addition to continuing the work of her Fellowship by representing young adults in need, Taylor has developed the nation’s first mobile app providing youth in foster care with vital information about benefits, protections, and their legal rights, expanding the scope of her impact. We are thrilled to celebrate her contributions at the 2025 Scales of Justice event.” 

Equal Justice Works created the Distinguished Alumni Award to highlight Fellow alums who have made outstanding contributions as a leader in public interest law; created lasting impact in the communities they serve; embody the organizational values of passion, community, service, opportunity, and equal access to justice; and reflect the transformative power of an Equal Justice Works Fellowship. Past awardees include Diego Cartagena, President and CEO of Bet Tzedek Legal Services and Ahilan Arulanantham, Professor from Practice and Co-Director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at the UCLA School of Law. 

Following her Fellowship, Taylor continued to expand on the work completed during her project by staying at Bay Legal Services, Inc. as a Senior Staff Attorney. In this role, she represents youth and young adults in the foster care system. Taylor focuses on issues related to human trafficking, disabilities, commitment in psychiatric facilities, aging out of foster care, school to prison pipeline prevention, systemic impact advocacy and litigation, and more. Taylor is also the Creator and Legal Director of FosterPower, which empowers youth and young adults in foster care by making critical and comprehensive information accessible.  

Taylor received a bachelor’s degree in English literature, magna cum laude, from Florida State University in 2014. She earned her Juris Doctor with a Certificate of Concentration in Social Justice Advocacy from Stetson University College of Law in 2018. Taylor is the founder of the organization Child Advocates of Stetson Law, which provides a way to connect law students who are passionate about making a difference in the lives of abused and neglected children through legal advocacy and community engagement efforts. 

“Equal Justice Works provided me with the opportunity to hit the ground running in a career of social justice, from fighting for children’s rights in foster care to creating the only app in the country that explains their rights and laws meant to protect them,” said Taylor. “It is such an incredible honor to receive this award, and I am proud to say that, thanks to my Fellowship, I was given the tools and platform to jumpstart and subsequently continue this valuable work. I am grateful to witness how current and past Equal Justice Works fellows are shaping the future of our legal system by changing the trajectory for people who otherwise wouldn’t have legal representation or resources.” 

Click here for more information about the Scales of Justice. Click here to learn more about Taylor. 

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About Equal Justice Works 

Equal Justice Works is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that creates opportunities for lawyers to transform their passion for equal justice into a lifelong commitment to public service. As the nation’s largest facilitator of opportunities in public interest law, Equal Justice Works brings together an extensive network of law students, lawyers, nonprofit legal aid organizations, and supporters to promote a lifelong commitment to public service and equal justice. 

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