Biography
Marsha Levick is the co-founder, deputy director, and chief counsel of Juvenile Law Center, the oldest public interest law firm for children in the United States. For more than 35 years, she has been an advocate for children’s and women’s rights, earning recognition as a national leader in juvenile law.
Levick has authored or co-authored numerous briefs before the U.S. Supreme Court and many federal and state courts, contributing to cases including Roper v. Simmons, striking the juvenile death penalty; Graham v. Florida, striking juvenile life without parole sentences for non-homicide crimes; JDB v. North Carolina, requiring consideration of youth status in the Miranda custody determination; and Miller v. Alabama, striking mandatory juvenile life without parole sentences in homicide cases. Levick has also written many scholarly articles on children and the law, and has led Juvenile Law Center’s work addressing the Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, “kids for cash” judges’ scandal, believed to be the largest judicial corruption scandal in American legal history.
In her service appointments, Levick sits on the boards of several national nonprofit organizations including the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana. She has received numerous awards for her work, including recognition from the Philadelphia, American Bar Association and the American Association for Justice. She was also the co-recipient of the Philadelphia Inquirer 2009 Citizen of the Year Award. In addition, Levick was named the inaugural recipient of the 2013 Arlen Specter Award, established by the Legal Intelligencer to recognize the lawyer or judge who has made the most significant contribution to law, the legal profession, or justice in Pennsylvania in the past 10 years. She is an adjunct professor at both the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Temple University Beasley School of Law.
Levick earned a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and a J.D. from Temple University Beasley School of Law.