Deputy Director and Chief Counsel, Juvenile Law Center
Marsha Levick is the co-founder and Chief Legal Officer Emeritus of Juvenile Law Center, America’s first public interest law firm for children. Throughout her career, Marsha has advocated for youth involved in the justice and family regulation/child welfare systems, participating in landmark litigation nationwide to advance children’s legal rights and well-being, including several U.S. Supreme Court cases involving the extreme sentencing of children. Marsha also led Juvenile Law Center’s litigation arising out of Pennsylvania’s infamous “Kids for Cash” scandal. In Spring 2026, Marsha served as the Phyllis W. Beck Chair at Temple University Beasley School of Law and is currently the Stoneleigh Foundation inaugural Robert G Schwartz Visiting Fellow, where her two-year fellowship site will be The MGH Center for Law, Brain and Behavior. Marsha’s work will focus on developing an alternative model to our current, highly punitive youth justice system.
Marsha has received numerous awards for her work, including the Philadelphia Award, the Philadelphia Inquirer Citizen of the Year Award, and The Philadelphia Citizen’s Social Justice Activist of the Year Award, as well as awards from the American Bar Association, American Association for Justice, the Pennsylvania Bar Association and the Philadelphia Bar Association. Marsha is an adjunct law Professor at Penn Carey Law School, Temple University Beasley School of Law and Columbia Law School.