S. L. Jacobs is a product of Southern California. She graduated from UCLA in 1975 (BA, English literature, dean's list, service honors) and from Southwestern University School of Law in 1979 (JD, moot court honors, service honors). She moved to Woodbridge, Connecticut, in 1985 and was admitted to the Connecticut Bar in 1986. Her legal career has been varied. Over the span of more than forty years, she has practiced and litigated all aspects of commercial litigation, environmental law, land use and zoning, and family law. For the past fifteen years of her practice, she devoted herself exclusively to family mediation and collaborative law.

She retired from the practice of law in 2021. Over the course of nearly four decades, she has been an active participant in the Town of Woodbridge. She has been elected or appointed to multiple municipal boards, commissions, and committees and has twice been a delegate to the state political convention. Currently, she is chair of the board of finance. All of these elected and appointed positions are on a volunteer basis, and mostly all are subject to the legal and actual requirement of public comment.