Sarah Deri Oshiro Pro Bono Immigration Attorney

Sarah Deri Oshiro (she/her/hers) oversees all of the firm’s humanitarian-based immigration pro bono work. She mentors attorneys, acts as a resource for the firm and its pro bono immigrant clients, and helps grow relationships with immigration legal service provider partners around the country. Sarah has more than a decade of experience practicing, supervising, training, and managing within immigration legal services programs.

Prior to joining Perkins Coie, Sarah was the managing director of the immigration practice at The Bronx Defenders. In that role, she managed a team of more than 50 advocates who represent indigent noncitizens in all immigration matters. Sarah is a recognized leader in the immigrants’ rights community and was the 2019 recipient of the NYC Bar Association’s Legal Services Award. She helped develop and manage the country’s first public defender program for immigrants in removal proceedings at New York City’s detained immigration court. The enormously successful program has become the benchmark model for universal representation in deportation defense and has been replicated nationally. Sarah has also led trainings for law firms, nonprofit and community organizations, law students, and the Practising Law Institute (PLI). She has also participated in coalitions that advocate for more just immigration policies.

Sarah previously served as the managing attorney of the Immigrant Justice Corps, a national immigration fellowship program founded by the late Chief Judge Robert Katzmann of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Prior to attending law school, she provided immigration legal services to members of a large New York labor union. Sarah has a B.A. from Wesleyan University and a J.D. from NYU School of Law, and is fluent in Spanish.