About Attorney Sarah Westra

       Attorney Sarah Westra’s keen interest in criminal defense law began long before she attended law school. Her strong, personal belief in the effectiveness of the American justice system influenced her academic experience, providing a substantive basis for her professional career.

     As a teenager, she witnessed first-hand the juvenile justice system and noticed the disparity between people with money and those without. She recalls one specific situation that crystallized her desire to pursue criminal defense, and advocate for clients who have been harshly and unnecessarily charged.

     After graduating from college, she postponed attending law school for two years when she was offered a position to join the legal team with the New Hampshire Public Defender’s Office, representing a man facing the death penalty, something that the state had not done since 1937. During that time, Sarah continued her focus and interned for a superior court judge. Participating in such a high-profile case continued to feed her desire to eventually become a criminal defense attorney.

     She graduated from the New England School of Law in Boston, Massachusetts in 2011, and was admitted to the bar in the same year. Her diligence as a law student was recognized when she received the Timothy J. Cronin, Jr. public service award for her work with the New England  Innocence Project, as well as the “Civil Gideon” Project, which sought to advance the right to counsel in certain civil cases.  

     Attorney Westra is active in several legal organizations. She is a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association and serves as the Treasurer on the Board of Directors for Norfolk County Bar Advocates.  She is a member of the council for the Bar Association of Norfolk County and was previously the president of the Quincy Bar Association. She has served on a panel with the district attorney in Norfolk County on the recent expungement statute. She has also served on a Continuing Legal Education (CLE) panel, hosted by the Social Law Library educating lawyers in the area of litigation strategy, as it relates to suppression issues in motor vehicle stops. She continues to mentor students interested in criminal defense in the fellowship program offered by New England Law Boston.

     For over ten years, Attorney Westra has continued to pursue her single-minded conviction that the American justice system was originally designed, and continues, to protect its citizens.