Sarah Bennett Bures

As pro bono director and counsel, Sarah leads and facilitates the pro bono practice across the firm’s offices in the southern United States, including those in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, Texas, and Virginia. She collaborates with firm attorneys, in-house legal departments, and community organizations to meet the legal needs of vulnerable and underrepresented clients. Sarah focuses her personal practice on addressing legal issues that affect basic human needs, such as safe and stable housing.

Prior to shifting her focus to pro bono, Sarah represented electric and gas utilities at another AmLaw 100 firm in complex regulatory litigation before state utility commissions, focusing on clean energy development; integrated resource planning; and first-of-their-kind proceedings in Virginia on grid modernization, energy storage, and transportation electrification.

Sarah served as a law clerk to the Honorable John A. Gibney, Jr., of the United Stated District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. While in law school, Sarah served as manuscripts editor for the University of Richmond Law Review and chancellor of the Walter Scott McNeill Law Honor Society. She graduated first in her law school class.

Sarah is a member of the Emerging Leaders Council of the Legal Services Corporation, a publicly-funded nonprofit corporation established by Congress to ensure equal access to justice under the law for all Americans by providing funding for civil legal aid to those otherwise unable to afford it. She also serves as chair-elect of the Richmond Bar Association Pro Bono Committee.

Pro Bono

• Managed the involvement of an AmLaw 100 firm in a nationally-recognized pro bono medical-legal partnership with a local health system and a corporate client that offered free legal advice and representation to low-income patients and their families.
• Led the involvement of an AmLaw 100 firm in a legal task force made up of five Big Law firms to represent members of the Afghan Female Tactical Platoon seeking asylum in the United States.
• Successfully represented two Afghan refugees seeking asylum in the United States after the fall of Kabul in August 2021.
• Represented a pro bono client in a federal habeas appeal, drafting merits briefing and presenting oral argument before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. United States v. Salas, 807 Fed. Appx. 218 (4th Cir. 2020).
• Successfully obtained adult guardianships and conservatorships for the parents of incapacitated adults.

Energy Regulation

• Successfully represented an electric utility in proceedings involving certificates of public convenience and necessity or prudence determinations for clean energy generation projects, including for nearly 4,000 MW of solar projects and 185 MW of energy storage projects.
• Represented an electric utility in multiple grid modernization proceedings, with a focus on advanced metering infrastructure, transportation electrification, distributed energy resource management systems, and cost-benefit analyses.
• Represented an electric utility in multiple integrated resource planning proceedings.

Civil Litigation

• Represented a trucking company on appeal of a jury verdict regarding vicarious liability.
• Represented a medical service provider on appeal of a trial court decision regarding the level of scrutiny to apply to restrictive covenants.

• Best Lawyers in America®, Ones to Watch: Administrative/Regulatory Law (2021-2026)
• Selected for inclusion in Virginia Business’s 2024 Class of Legal Elite, Legal Services / Pro Bono
• Recipient, Pro Bono Service Champion, Virginia Access to Justice Commission (2024)
• Recipient, Pro Bono Service Honor Roll, Virginia Access to Justice Commission (2022)