Sarah Megdal is a Lecturer in Law at UCLA School of Law, where she teaches Legal Analysis, Writing, and Research for LL.M. students. For nearly a decade, she has worked at the Los Angeles Superior Court, where she currently serves as a Research Attorney and advises judges in the Criminal Division on complex questions of substantive and procedural criminal law, analyzes new legislation and appellate decisions, and prepares legal memoranda, proposed orders, and other materials for the court.

Megdal received her B.A. magna cum laude from Yale College and her J.D. from UCLA School of Law, where she received the Burton Marks Memorial Criminal Law Prize for the best work in advanced criminal law courses. Before joining the Los Angeles Superior Court, she worked in the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the Central District of California and in the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office.

Megdal assisted Judge Kerry Bensinger with the initial draft and annual updates of the Preliminary Hearing Handbook (The Rutter Group, 2024). Her publications have appeared in the European Journal of Cancer and Sleep Medicine.