Sarah Grady

Sarah has represented thousands of currently and formerly incarcerated individuals, and their families, at trial and on appeal. She focuses on claims involving violations of the Constitution and federal law, including those involving death, denials of medical and mental health care, excessive force, and sexual assault against government officials and companies charged with safeguarding loved ones behind bars. She has recovered tens of millions of dollars on behalf of her clients, including record settlements and trial wins.

In addition to being a proven trial lawyer, Sarah is an experienced appellate lawyer in civil rights cases. She has been retained to protect multiple trial verdicts, including in a win before the en banc Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, which affirmed an $11.5 million verdict on behalf of two women who were sexually abused in a local jail.

Sarah regularly consults and trains other lawyers representing incarcerated individuals and their families. Among other awards and recognitions, in 2021, Sarah was awarded the Maurice Weigle Exceptional Young Lawyer Award by the Chicago Bar Association and Chicago Bar Foundation.

Before co-founding Kaplan & Grady, Sarah established and led Loevy & Loevy’s Prisoners’ Rights Project. Sarah graduated cum laude from Northwestern University School of Law and earned her undergraduate degree with honors from the University of Iowa. After law school, Sarah clerked for the Hon. Matthew F. Kennelly on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

In addition to her litigation practice, Sarah is active in the prisoners’ rights community. Among her many activities in the community, Sarah co-teaches the Civil Rights Litigation Clinic in the MacArthur Justice Center at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, serves on the boards of the Illinois Prison Project and the Uptown People’s Law Center, and is a member of the advisory board of the Chicago People’s Rights Collaborative.