Juvenile Law Center Announces New Chief Legal Officer
The organization announces Jessica Feierman as its next CLO
Philadelphia, PA (November 24, 2025) – Today, Juvenile Law Center announced the appointment of its next Chief Legal Officer, Jessica Feierman. She will assume the position in January 2026.
“I have had the honor of knowing and working with Jessica for nearly twenty years and I am so excited that she will be in this new role. She brings creativity, brilliance, and inclusion to everything she does. As Juvenile Law Center continues to evolve after 50 years, she is the perfect person to lead our next phase of legal advocacy,” said Riya Saha Shah, Chief Executive Officer.
Jessica, previously Senior Managing Director, began at the organization in 2006. She has a record of trailblazing work on behalf of youth, including advocating successfully to end punishment for poverty, fight harmful conditions of confinement for incarcerated youth, bring youth home to their families and communities, support youth leadership, and develop U.S. Supreme Court precedent protective of youth rights.
She will follow Marsha Levick, who co-founded the organization in 1975.
“I am enormously proud of the work of Juvenile Law Center and deeply honored to have had the opportunity to contribute to our success on behalf of children over many decades,” said Marsha Levick, co-founder and current Chief Legal Offer of Juvenile Law Center. “Looking ahead, I am thrilled to pass the baton to Jessica, who is a superb lawyer, advocate and thought partner and is the perfect choice to carry this work forward.”
Jessica has advocated for children’s rights in courts across the country, including co-authoring the lead child advocates amicus briefs in several U.S Supreme Court cases, including Graham v. Florida, Safford v. Redding, and J.D.B. v. North Carolina, all of which heightened constitutional protections for young people. She has also brought affirmative litigation to challenge harmful institutional conditions and bring young people back to their families and communities, including serving as a lead counsel on J.J. v. Litscher and T.D. v. Mickens, two cases that challenged solitary confinement and other harsh punishments.
Jessica has also played a key role in both state and federal policy reform on economic justice, solitary confinement, and educational access. Her publication Debtors’ Prison for Kids, featured in the New York Times, set the stage for a national campaign to abolish fees and fines in the juvenile legal system, resulting in over 20 states eliminating fees and fines in their juvenile courts and over $750 million dollars of debt lifted from youth and families. She is also widely published – in advocacy reports and academic articles – on these issues.
In 2010, Jessica launched the Youth Advocacy Program at Juvenile Law Center, which invited youth directly impacted by the juvenile justice system to inform our advocacy. Youth partnerships have been integral to Juvenile Law Center’s work ever since.
“I am deeply honored to be stepping into this role and to have the chance to work alongside brilliant colleagues, youth leaders, and community partners as we fight for a world that prioritizes healing and restoration and rejects harsh and discriminatory punishment,” shared Jessica. “I have learned so much from Marsha’s leadership, vision, and incisive intellect, and I am excited to build on the incredible foundation she established.”
Jessica’s career path demonstrates a lifelong commitment to youth justice and racial justice. Prior to joining Juvenile Law Center, Jessica was a litigation fellow at the ACLU National Prison Project, a teaching fellow at Georgetown University Law Center, and a law clerk to the Honorable Warren J. Ferguson on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Prior to attending law school, Jessica founded and directed the Teen Health Initiative (now called the Teen Activist Project) at the New York Civil Liberties Union.
In 2025, Jessica was named Child Advocate of the Year by the Pennsylvania Bar Association. In 2022, she was honored by her alma mater, Penn Carey School of Law, as a finalist for the Alumni Impact Award. In 2020, Jessica was selected as an Atlantic Fellow for Racial Equity in recognition of her outstanding advocacy and critical work to bring a race equity lens to transform the juvenile legal system.
Riya Saha Shah, Marsha Levick, and Jessica Feierman are available for questions and comments.
