Sarah Kunstler

Sarah Kunstler (she/her) is an adjunct professor at the CUNY School of Law, where she teaches in the Lawyering Program. She is a criminal defense lawyer, documentary filmmaker, and writer whose work is dedicated to challenging systemic injustice through advocacy, storytelling, and public education.

For more than twenty years, Sarah has represented indigent clients in federal criminal proceedings, with a focus on appeals, post-conviction litigation, sentencing advocacy, and compassionate release. Her legal work has included challenges to unlawful convictions and sentences, the enforcement of constitutional rights in criminal proceedings, and advocacy for people harmed by the conditions and consequences of incarceration.

Sarah is also the co-founder, with Emily Kunstler, of Off Center Productions, a documentary film company committed to telling stories that illuminate suppressed histories, expose injustice, and explore movements for social change. Her films include William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe, a documentary about the life and legacy of her father, civil rights lawyer William Kunstler, and Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America, which examines the history of anti-Black racism in the United States through the work of civil rights lawyer and educator Jeffery Robinson. Her current documentary work continues to explore the relationship between law, public memory, historical truth, and resistance.

In addition to her legal and film work, Sarah writes about criminal punishment, constitutional rights, racial justice, public memory, and the role of storytelling in struggles for liberation. Across these different forms of work, she is interested in how law shapes narratives about guilt, innocence, safety, punishment, and belonging—and how advocacy and storytelling can be used to challenge those narratives.

Sarah holds a J.D. from Columbia Law School and a B.A. from Yale University.