Sarah Carthen Watson

Sarah Carthen Watson is an experienced civil rights litigator with a background in fair housing law and policy advocacy. She serves as the Movement Lawyer for the Shriver Center on Poverty Law’s Legal Impact Network (LIN). With over 30 members, the LIN is a collective of groups from across the country that work on racial and economic justice issues. Sarah guides the network’s legal advocacy strategies and engagement with people affected by systemic oppression. 

Prior to joining the Shriver Center, Sarah served as the Legal Director for the Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center (LaFHAC). In this role, she supervised the organization's ever-growing range of enforcement and advocacy efforts to ensure fair access to housing for protected classes across the state of Louisiana. In addition to representing clients and LaFHAC in fair housing act litigation and administrative proceedings, Sarah supervised the organization's testing and eviction defense projects. Sarah has also served as Associate Counsel in the Fair Housing and Community Development Project of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, where she litigated challenges to discriminatory housing practices, drafted several Analyses of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice, and engaged in policy advocacy at the federal and state level. 

From 2018-2019, Sarah was the George N. Lindsay Fellow at the Lawyers’ Committee, where her fellowship project focused on nuisance and crime-free ordinances. Originally from Minnesota, Sarah received her J.D. and Certificate in Public Interest Law from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law and her B.S. in Education and Social Policy from Northwestern University.