Janet Sabel has worked for nearly forty years as an advocate for social and economic justice. Currently, she is working at New York University School of Law where she is the Founding Director of the Access to Justice Initiative at the Center on Civil Justice, and an adjunct professor of law. From 2019-2022, she was the Executive Director and Attorney-in-Chief of The Legal Aid Society in New York City, where she spent the first decades of her professional career in Legal Aid’s Civil Practice, representing clients in Housing Court, bringing law reform cases around disability and health law issues, running a neighborhood office, and leading the Immigration Law Unit before serving as Legal Aid’s General Counsel and Chief Administrative Officer. In between her work at Legal Aid, Janet spent eight years at the New York State Attorney General’s office, serving initially as Executive Deputy Attorney General for Social Justice and ultimately as a Chief Deputy to two Attorneys General.
Her work has been recognized by Cranes (Notable Women in Law), City & State (Power 50, Nonprofit Power, Law Power), the New York State Bar Association (Public Interest Law), New York County Lawyers’ Association (Public Service Award), The Legal Aid Society (Servant of Justice Award) and the Fund for Modern Courts (Fern Schair Public Service Award). She was a member of the New York State Bar Ethics Committee. In 2023, she was appointed to the New York State Court Modernization Action Committee and in 2024, she was appointed as a member of the Permanent Commission on Access to Justice by Chief Judge Rowan D. Wilson.
She received her BA from Harvard College and her JD from NYU Law School. She clerked on the First Circuit Court of Appeals for the Honorable Frank M. Coffin.