About Sara Ellen
Sara Ellen Barlowe entered the legal profession after earning her J.D. from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in 2016. She is admitted to practice in both New York and North Carolina. Her career has moved between public service and private practice, giving her exposure to courtroom work and client representation in different settings.
Early in her career she served in the Bronx as an Assistant District Lawyer in 2020. That role placed her inside a busy prosecutorial office during a period of intense public scrutiny of criminal justice institutions. Colleagues recall that her time in the Bronx involved handling day-to-day case responsibilities and working alongside other trial attorneys in a high-volume environment.
After her stint in public service, Barlowe joined Bagwell Holt Smith P.A. as an associate lawyer. At the firm she moved into a practice that required adapting advocacy skills to the priorities of private clients. Her work at Bagwell Holt Smith has involved court appearances, client counseling and drafting legal documents, and it has allowed her to apply the courtroom experience she gained in the Bronx to a broader range of matters.
Barlowe’s academic background at Cardozo laid a foundation in both litigation technique and legal analysis. During law school she studied courses that are common to practitioners who later take cases into the courtroom and the conference room. Classmates and professors noted her steady approach to legal research and argumentation.
Practically minded, she has balanced roles in public and private sectors in a way that reflects the choices many young lawyers face: serve the public first, then transition to client-driven practice. That path has given her fluency in procedural matters and the pressures of trial calendars, as well as the demands of managing client expectations in a firm setting.
Today she is an associate at Bagwell Holt Smith P.A., practicing across matters that arise in her admitted jurisdictions of New York and North Carolina. She continues to draw on courtroom experience from her time in the Bronx while representing clients in state and interjurisdictional matters.
