Sydney Arizona Bay, Senior Associate
Sydney’s passion for educational justice stems from her time as a middle school science teacher. She is a proud trial lawyer and advocate who represents students and families in education and civil rights litigation. She is licensed to practice in Washington and is provisionally licensed in Oregon through the SPPE program. Se habla español!
Before joining Cedar Law, Sydney was a Washington Assistant Attorney General practicing juvenile litigation.
Sydney graduated from the University of Washington School of Law with pro bono honors. She was a member of the Children and Youth Advocacy Clinic, where she represented children in the dependency system. As part of the clinic, she volunteered with the CARA Family Detention Pro Bono Project in Dilley, Texas, assisting women and children with credible fear interviews at the detention center. She was on the Washington International Law Journal and in 2021 published an article with the journal: Criminalization is Not the Only Way: Guatemala’s Law Against Femicide and Other Forms of Violence Against Women and the Rates of Femicide in Guatemala. During law school, she interned with Northwest Immigrant Rights Project Children and Youth Advocacy Project and the Washington State Attorney General’s Office Civil Rights Division; she also externed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington.
Before law school, Sydney spent three years teaching middle school science in Arizona and Washington. She holds a Master’s in Secondary Education from Arizona State University and a Bachelor’s in Psychology and Spanish from the University of Texas at Arlington.
In 2026, Sydney was recognized as a rising star by Washington Super Lawyers.
Sydney teaches American Public School Law at the University of Washington School of Law, training future lawyers the nuances of the legal and constitutional issues that shape public education.
Here, you can watch her 2024 oral argument before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on behalf of four student appellants in a matter arising from claims related to a university’s Physician Assistant program. The case was successfully reversed, and Sydney led the litigation team to prevail in a federal jury trial in May 2025.