Sawyer Like (he/him)
Staff Attorney
Sawyer is a staff attorney in VLJ’s Tenancy Program.
Sawyer interned with VLJ as a law student through the Maida Public Interest Fellowship Program. Prior to joining VLJ as a staff attorney, Sawyer clerked at the Superior Court of New Jersey's Criminal and Family Divisions in Passaic County for the Honorable Sohail Mohammed, P.J.Cr. and the Honorable Latoyia Jenkins, J.S.C., respectively. He was also a Landlord Tenant Law Clerk in the Court's Special Civil Part in Hudson County.
Sawyer received his bachelor's degree from Kansas State University and Juris Doctor from Rutgers Law School-Newark, where he was a Notes & Comments Editor for Rutgers Race & the Law Review. Sawyer has been credited for his research contributions in JOSHUA DRESSLER & GEORGE C. THOMAS III, CRIMINAL PROCEDURE: PRINCIPLES, POLICIES, AND PERSPECTIVES (7th ed. 2020), and his note analyzing the evolution of modern policing in urban areas as a form of internal colonialism was published in the twenty-second volume of Rutgers Race & the Law Review. Sawyer is licensed to practice law in New Jersey and enjoys creative writing in his free time.
Connect with Sawyer
““First and foremost, ensuring access to justice means we must zealously advocate for those experiencing poverty as they navigate a civil legal justice system that is largely inaccessible to economically-disadvantaged persons and perpetuates intergenerational poverty. However, it also means asking a difficult question: why do we as a society allow poverty to exist? Intersectionality exists between poverty, race, gender, and sexual orientation, and I believe abolishing poverty is crucial to dismantling broader structures of inequality.””