Name
Sara Pratt
Organization/Company Affiliation
Sara Pratt
Position Title
Consultant
Speaker Bio
Sara Pratt retired from the law firm Relman Colfax PLLC in Washington, D.C. in 2025 and is working as a consultant, speaker, expert witness and trainer on fair housing and related issues. During her time at Relman Colfax she developed and settled cases involving race, national origin, familial status, and disability discrimination, lending redlining, and zoning and settled cases at HUD and in litigation.
Prior to joining Relman Colfax she was Deputy Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Programs and Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary at the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity in Washington DC.
During her time at HUD, she directed national enforcement activities relating to fair housing and civil rights, directed the Fair Housing Initiatives Program and led the negotiations that led to the settlement of Assistant Secretary v. Associated Bank, HUD’s largest settlement involving lending redlining because of race, FairShare v. New Jersey, a significant settlement challenging racial and national origin discrimination in the expenditure of disaster recovery funds following Superstorm Sandy, NFHA et al v.Wells Fargo, the $42 million dollar settlement of a REO case, and Secretary et al v. Wells Fargo, a large settlement involving lending discrimination against women on maternity leave, among other cases.
Sara also led numerous policy development initiatives during her time at HUD, including addressing sex and race discrimination against victims of domestic violence under the Fair Housing Act and providing language access to address national origin discrimination, and she participated in the development of fair housing regulations including HUD’s rules defining discriminatory effects under the Fair Housing Act, prohibiting harassment in housing, and describing housing for older persons under the Act. She is author of “Civil Rights Strategies To Increase Mobility,” a 2017 article in the Yale Law Forum, https://www.yalelawjournal.org/forum/civil-rights-strategies-to-increase-mobility, and she is primary author and editor of Damages for Embarrassment and Humiliation in Housing Discrimination Cases published by the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights.
She has published several articles about fair housing topics, including the developing law in exclusionary zoning and an article describing how landlords who ban applicants because of their involvement with the criminal justice system through arrests and convictions risk violating the Fair Housing Act. She has developed and presented training on issues relating to disability discrimination under the Fair Housing Act to multiple audiences.
A book that she co-authored, Housing Discrimination, which is designed for fair housing practitioners, was recently published by Lexis Nexis.
Prior to joining Relman Colfax she was Deputy Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Programs and Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary at the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity in Washington DC.
During her time at HUD, she directed national enforcement activities relating to fair housing and civil rights, directed the Fair Housing Initiatives Program and led the negotiations that led to the settlement of Assistant Secretary v. Associated Bank, HUD’s largest settlement involving lending redlining because of race, FairShare v. New Jersey, a significant settlement challenging racial and national origin discrimination in the expenditure of disaster recovery funds following Superstorm Sandy, NFHA et al v.Wells Fargo, the $42 million dollar settlement of a REO case, and Secretary et al v. Wells Fargo, a large settlement involving lending discrimination against women on maternity leave, among other cases.
Sara also led numerous policy development initiatives during her time at HUD, including addressing sex and race discrimination against victims of domestic violence under the Fair Housing Act and providing language access to address national origin discrimination, and she participated in the development of fair housing regulations including HUD’s rules defining discriminatory effects under the Fair Housing Act, prohibiting harassment in housing, and describing housing for older persons under the Act. She is author of “Civil Rights Strategies To Increase Mobility,” a 2017 article in the Yale Law Forum, https://www.yalelawjournal.org/forum/civil-rights-strategies-to-increase-mobility, and she is primary author and editor of Damages for Embarrassment and Humiliation in Housing Discrimination Cases published by the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights.
She has published several articles about fair housing topics, including the developing law in exclusionary zoning and an article describing how landlords who ban applicants because of their involvement with the criminal justice system through arrests and convictions risk violating the Fair Housing Act. She has developed and presented training on issues relating to disability discrimination under the Fair Housing Act to multiple audiences.
A book that she co-authored, Housing Discrimination, which is designed for fair housing practitioners, was recently published by Lexis Nexis.