Sarah H. Bohr is an appellate attorney who has specialized in Social Security law for over 40 years and for the past 20 years, has had an appellate practice writing Social Security federal court briefs for lawyers.
Jon C. Dubin is the Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor, Distinguished Professor of Law, Paul Robeson Scholar and Director of the Economic Justice and Public Benefits Clinic at Rutgers Law School, Newark Campus where he teaches Administrative Law; Social Security Law; Poverty, Race & Economic Justice; and the Economic Justice & Public Benefits Clinic.
What the Circuits Did in 2026 — Before It Costs You a Case
Case law does not hold still. This session explores the trends in the circuit courts in 2026 — the year's movement, gathered in one place.
Trends are the operative word. A single decision is a data point; a trend across the circuits is a signal about where the law is heading and how arguments are landing. Reading those trends is the difference between briefing against last year's landscape and this year's.
You walk out current on the circuit courts' 2026 trends — oriented to the year's developments and ready to put them to work in your own cases.
Eligible for up to 1 CLE Credit Hour
This session was originally submitted for CLE as a live, in-person presentation and a live webcast for the 2026 Fall National Conference and may be eligible for self-study credit. Each state handles self-study credit differently; for questions, please consult your State Bar Association.
Recorded Friday, October 16, 2026.
Key topics to be discussed:
This course is co-sponsored with myLawCLE.
Date / Time: October 16, 2026
Closed-captioning available
Sarah H. Bohr, Appellate Attorney | Bohr & Harrington, LLC
Sarah H. Bohr is an appellate attorney who has specialized in Social Security law for over 40 years and for the past 20 years, has had an appellate practice writing Social Security federal court briefs for lawyers.
Sarah earned her B.A. from the College of Wooster in 1974 and her J.D. from the Antioch School of Law in 1977, and was admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and Florida in 1978.
She is a past president of the NOSSCR and a current representative on the Board from the 11th Circuit and a member of its Executive Committee.
Sarah is a frequent speaker at national and regional Social Security conferences. She is the author of five Social Security publications and her new updated 2026 Editions addressing the Appeals Council, Rulings, Overview of Disability Law, and attorneys fees.
She learned Social Security law while working at Jacksonville Area Legal Aid, Inc. for 21 years. Sarah is most proud of her successful argument before the Supreme Court 25 years ago, in Sims v. Apfel, 530 U.S.
103 (2000).
Jon C. Dubin, Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor, Distinguished Professor of Law | Rutgers Law School
Jon C. Dubin is the Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor, Distinguished Professor of Law, Paul Robeson Scholar and Director of the Economic Justice and Public Benefits Clinic at Rutgers Law School, Newark Campus where he teaches Administrative Law; Social Security Law; Poverty, Race & Economic Justice; and the Economic Justice & Public Benefits Clinic.
He is a graduate of NYU Law School and Dartmouth College.
He is an elected member of the National Academy of Social Insurance; recipient of the National Organization of Social Security Claimant Representatives (NOSSCR’s) Distinguished Service Award; has supplied solicited testimony to Congress on Social Security Disability Reform; served on the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS), Social Security Disability Adjudication Working Group; and served on the Board of Directors of the National Center for Law & Economic Justice/Center for Social Welfare Policy & Law.
He has authored or co-authored numerous books on Social Security Law, Policy or Practice including: SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY LAW AND THE AMERICAN LABOR MARKET (NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2021); SOCIAL SECURITY LAW AND PRACTICE IN A NUTSHELL (Co-authored with Frank S. Bloch, West Acad. Pub. Co. 2022); ) and SOCIAL SECURITY LAW, POLICY AND PRACTICE: CASES AND MATERIALS (Co-authored with Frank S. Bloch, West Acad. Pub. Co., 2016) His latest forthcoming book is under contract with Cambridge University Press (CUP): THE COLOR OF SOCIAL SECURITY: RACE, RETIREMENT, DISABILITY AND DISPARITY IN THE CROWN JEWEL OF THE WELFARE STATE (CUP, forthcoming 2026).
His own law school clinical practice for over 35 years has focused on the social security disability programs, including co-counseling the successful appeal and serving as the principal drafter of the Petitioner’s Brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in Sims v. Apfel, 530 U.S. 103 (2000)—a case in which the high court also twice cited Dubin’s National Equal Justice Library award-winning COLUMBIA LAW REVIEW article Torquemada Meets Kafka (1997) and adopted the article’s doctrinal label, “issue exhaustion,” and reasoning in its decision. He was also Counsel of Record for 56 law professors from 40 law schools as Amicus Curiae in the U.S. Supreme Court in Carr v. Saul, 593 U.S. 83 (2021) (extending Sims), and has supervised a dozen successful appeals in the U.S. Courts of Appeal, and countless successful appeals in the district courts and in social security administrative hearings.
SESSION 1 – 2026 Case Update | 11:45am – 12:45pm
This session will explore trends in the circuit courts in 2026.