Attorney Robyn N. Sanders is an Associate at Patterson Harkavy LLP, where she focuses her practice on civil rights, employment law, criminal defense, appellate advocacy, and habeas corpus.

Before joining the firm, Robyn served as an Assistant Federal Public Defender in the Capital Habeas Unit of the Western District of Pennsylvania, representing death-sentenced clients in federal habeas corpus proceedings. She previously worked as Voting Rights Counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice in New York City, where she litigated voting rights cases and led voting rights and election reform policy initiatives across the nation. Robyn’s role blended constitutional litigation with strategic policy design, media advocacy, and coalition-building at both the state and federal level. She also served as pro bono counsel for several years with the Innocence Project at Duke Law School, representing wrongfully convicted individuals in post-conviction proceedings. From 2021 to 2022, Robyn served as a judicial law clerk to Senior Associate Justice Anita Earls on the North Carolina Supreme Court.

Robyn earned her J.D. from Campbell Law School, where she was awarded multiple Book Awards for earning the highest grade in her class in Supreme Court Practice, Employment Discrimination, Race, Justice, and the Law, Advanced Legal Writing, and Constitutional Law. During law school, she served as a staff writer for the Campbell Law Observer Journal, a teaching scholar in Advanced Legal Writing, a member of the mock trial team, and an executive board member of the Black Law Students Association. She also holds an LL.M. in International Legal Studies with Distinction from Nottingham Trent University School of Law in the United Kingdom, where her dissertation explored compulsory vaccination and religious liberty during the COVID-19 pandemic. Robyn earned both her M.A. in Public Administration with high honors and her B.A. in Political Science from North Carolina State University.

She is a regular contributor to Slate Magazine, where she writes on democracy, civil rights, and constitutional law, and currently serves on the Advisory Board of Common Cause North Carolina.