Sarah Schwartz

Sarah is the Principal Lawyer of the Wirraway Practice (Police & Prison Accountability) at the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service. Sarah represents clients in cases involving police accountability, the rights of people in prison and coronial inquests into Aboriginal deaths in custody. Sarah is also a Lecturer at the University of Melbourne and co-organiser of the Rebellious Lawyering Conference Australia. In 2019, Sarah was awarded a John Monash Scholarship to complete a Master of Laws at Harvard University. At Harvard, she researched policing, mass incarceration and community resistance to the criminalisation of race and poverty.

Recent articles by Sarah Schwartz

What you can do today to support Palestinians in Gaza

What you can do today to support Palestinians in Gaza

Israel is currently ramping up its depopulation campaign in the north of Gaza, its violence in the West Bank and is escalating its bombing of Lebanon. Bolstered by international impunity, Israel’s far-right government continues down this genocidal path.

3 ways the Victorian government’s bail reforms fall short – and why it must embrace ‘Poccum’s Law’

3 ways the Victorian government’s bail reforms fall short – and why it must embrace ‘Poccum’s Law’

The bail reform bill tabled in the Victorian parliament this week seeks to undo some of the worst parts of the Bail Act, which was condemned as a “complete and unmitigated disaster” in the coronial inquest into the passing of Gunditjmara, Dja Dja Wurrung, Wiradjuri and Yorta Yorta woman Veronica Nelson in 2020.

Police shouldn’t be able to investigate themselves. Victoria needs an independent police accountability body

Police shouldn’t be able to investigate themselves. Victoria needs an independent police accountability body

This week, a new report revealed First Nations people, as well as people of African or Middle Eastern appearance, were disproportionately targeted by police in issuing COVID-19 fines.