Sarah J. Schendel

Biography

Professor Schendel has been a member of the faculty since 2017, and is currently an Associate Professor and Director of the Law School's Academic Support Program, where she teaches Professional Responsibility, Legal Analysis and Methods, and Negotiation. An interdisciplinary scholar, her work spans legal ethics, access to justice, and legal education pedagogy, with a particular focus on the experiences of students and lawyers from historically underrepresented communities. Her scholarship has been published in the Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics, Iowa Journal of Gender, Race & Justice, Nebraska Law Review, and the Fordham Law Review. Her article Due Dates in the Real World received the Deborah Rhode Prize from the International Association of Legal Ethics. She has been recognized with the Suffolk Law Faculty Member of the Year Award (2024), the Kindregan Scholarship Award (2024), and the AALS Section on Academic Support Trailblazer Award (2022), among other honors. Prior to joining Suffolk, she practiced immigration law for over seven years, representing clients in deportation defense, asylum, and family reunification matters, and taught at Emerson College, Northeastern University, and Northeastern University School of Law.

Selected Publications

Articles

Sarah J. Schendel, Good Intentions, Mixed Messages: Considering Mental Health in Attorney Discipline, 29 Iowa J. Gender, Race & Just. (forthcoming 2026).

S. Schendel and S. Bourgeois, Teaching "Mistrust," 42 Law & Ineq. 183 (2024)

Due Dates in the Real World: Extensions, Equity, and the Hidden Curriculum, 35 Georgetown J. of Leg. Ethics 203 (2022)

Listen! Amplifying the Experiences of Black Law School Graduates in 2020, 100 Neb. L. Rev. (2021).

The Pandemic Syllabus, 98 Denv. L. Rev. F. (2020).

What You Don't Know (Can Hurt You): Using Exam Wrappers to Foster Self-Assessment Skills in Law Students, 40 Pace L. Rev. Vol. 154 (2020).

Book Chapters

"Beyond Fear: Introducing Mental Health in the Professional Responsibility Curriculum,” in Integrating Doctrine & Diversity: Inclusion & Equity Beyond the First Year, Carolina University Press (2024).

“Jennings v. Rodriguez” (re-written), co-authored with Prof. Sarah Sherman-Stokes, in Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Immigration Opinions, Cambridge University Press (2023).

Media

“The Medium Is the Message: A Summer Book Club on Abolition,” 26 Legal Writing 187 (2022)

Panel Opinion, How I Lawyer podcast with Prof. Jonah Perlin (2021)

Legal Profession Can’t Leave Black Graduates Behind, Bloomberg Law (2021)

The weight of 2020: Black law grads are ‘exhausted’ and ‘anxious’, ABA for Law Students (2021)

Fostering Student Self-Assessment, Ipse Dixit podcast with Prof. Brian Frye (2020)

How Academic Support Professionals Can Better Support LGBTQ+ Students - and Why We Should, Learning Curve (2018)

Essays

"No Further Discussion Necessary": Compliance as Professionalism in Legal Education, 94 Fordham L. Rev. (forthcoming 2026).

Education

• BA, Bard College
• JD, Northeastern University School of Law

Awards & Honors

• Shining Example Faculty Award, Suffolk University Law School Graduating Class of 2025
• Suffolk Law Faculty Member of the Year 2024
• Professors Who Inspire Us To Be Great, Black Law Student Association, Suffolk University Law School (2024)
• Kindregan Scholarship Award (2024)
• Excellence in Support of Students’ Professional Development, Student Bar Association, Suffolk University Law School (2023)
• Social Change Award from the Student Bar Association, Suffolk University Law School (2023)
• Deborah Rhode Prize for Early Career Scholars from the International Association of Legal Ethics (2022)
• Trailblazer Award, Section on Academic Support, American Association of Law Schools (2022)
• Professional Excellence Award, Black Law Student Association, Suffolk University Law School (2022)

Bar Admittance

• MA

Professional Links

• SSRN
• LinkedIn