Marsha Levick, Esq.

Marsha Levick will serve as the Stoneleigh Foundation’s inaugural Robert G. Schwartz Visiting Fellow. In this role, she will develop a new blueprint for a developmentally appropriate system of responsibility for youth that centers rehabilitation, restoration, and healing, not only for young people who cause harm, but also for their families and impacted communities. She characterizes the current youth justice system as one that punishes more than it rehabilitates, discriminates more than it advances racial justice, and harms more than it protects. Marsha proposes a system that accords with developmental knowledge, incorporates the perspectives of those directly involved in and affected by this system, and reflects more humane international norms and practices.

Her two-year fellowship site will be The MGH Center for Law, Brain and Behavior, which bridges the gap between modern neuroscience and the legal system. The Center’s goal is to translate medical and scientific research into actionable change that improves legal equity, public policy, and professional practice. In this capacity, Marsha will also serve as The Center’s Senior Fellow in the Project on Law and Applied Neuroscience, an interdisciplinary initiative with the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics at Harvard Law School.

Marsha is a nationally recognized expert in children’s rights whose five-decade career has been defined by successfully challenging the most extreme carceral practices against children. Previously, she served as the Chief Legal Officer of Juvenile Law Center, which she co-founded in 1975. Marsha has authored or co-authored numerous appellate and amicus briefs in state and federal appeals courts throughout the country, and has argued before both state and federal appellate courts in Pennsylvania and other jurisdictions. She co-authored the lead child advocates’ amicus briefs in key United States Supreme Court cases, including Roper v. Simmons (juvenile death penalty unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment); Graham v. Florida (life without parole sentences for youth convicted of non-homicide offenses unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment); and Miller v. Alabama (mandatory sentences of life without parole for youth convicted of homicide offenses unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment). She also served as co-counsel in Montgomery v. Louisiana, which secured retroactive relief for thousands who were sentenced under Miller. In addition, Marsha spearheaded litigation arising out of the Luzerne County, Pennsylvania juvenile court judges’ corruption scandal, known as “kids for cash,” where Juvenile Law Center successfully sought the expungement and vacatur of thousands of cases before the PA Supreme Court.

Marsha serves on the board of the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights and is a member of the Dean’s Council, Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs. She holds adjunct professorships at Penn Carey Law, Columbia Law School, and Temple University Beasley School of Law, and is a frequent speaker, lecturer, and author on children’s rights nationwide. Marsha has received numerous honors for her work, including the Philadelphia Bar Association’s 2011 Thurgood Marshall Award, the inaugural 2013 Arlen Specter Award, and the 2015 Philadelphia Award.

Marsha earned her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and her J.D. from Temple Law School.