Sarah Gerwig

Professor Gerwig’s permanent academic appointment is at Mercer University, where she is a tenured Professor of Law and has previously served as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Director of Experiential Education. In 2006, she founded the nationally recognized Habeas Project, which provides pro bono representation in post-conviction cases across Georgia. In recognition for her work in that clinic, she was awarded the 2013 Shanara Gilbert Emerging Clinician Award by the Clinical Legal Education Section of the American Association of Law Schools. She directs Mercer’s unique Introduction to Client Counseling program, and her textbook, What Brings You Here Today? An Introduction to Client Counseling was published in 2021. Gerwig teaches and writes in the areas of criminal law, human rights, law & humanities, and professional responsibility, and was a McDonald Distinguished Fellow with Emory University’s Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Law and Religion from 2019-2023. She was honored with the 2023 Judge Clyde Reese Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Beyond her teaching and scholarship, Gerwig is active with a number of statewide nonprofit organizations, including the Georgia Resource Center, the College Hill Corridor Commission, and the Georgia Innocence Project. She served on the Macon-Bibb County Planning & Zoning Commission for a number of years, including five years as its Chair. 

Before becoming a full-time academic, Professor Gerwig was the Senior Appellate Supervising Attorney in the central office of Georgia’s statewide public defender system. She received her B.A. in English from Mercer University; her J.D. from Emory Law School; and her Master of Theological Studies from Emory University’s Candler School of Theology, where she studied with Archbishop Desmond Tutu.