Jessica Feierman, Esq.

Jessica Feierman is the Senior Managing Director of Juvenile Law Center, where she leads programmatic work and engages in impact litigation, amicus efforts, and policy reform to fight the harmful and discriminatory impact of the juvenile and criminal legal and family regulation systems. Jessica is a nationally recognized expert on the rights of young people, and has published and presented widely on economic justice, racial justice, adolescent development, conditions of confinement, and the youth legal system.  

Jessica co-authored the lead child advocates amicus briefs to the U.S Supreme Court in Graham v. Florida, which held unconstitutional life without parole sentences for juveniles convicted of non-homicide offenses under the Eighth Amendment; Safford v. Redding, which held a school strip search unconstitutional; J.D.B. v. North Carolina, which held that a juvenile's age is relevant to the Miranda custody analysis under the Fifth Amendment; and Timbs v. Indiana, which held that the Eighth Amendment prohibition on excessive fines applies to the states. She has also authored over 50 amicus briefs in federal and state courts on a wide array of issues impacting youth in the legal system. 

Jessica was a lead counsel in J.J. v. Litscher, a class action case that successfully settled to prohibit solitary confinement and strictly limit the use of strip searches and restraints in Wisconsin’s secure facilities for youth in the juvenile legal system, and in T.D. v. Mickens, a damages action challenging the use of solitary confinement in New Jersey’s juvenile legal system, which settled for compensation for the involved young people. 

Jessica leads Juvenile Law Center’s work on economic justice and launched a highly successful national effort to end fines and fees in the juvenile justice system. Jessica’s publication Debtors’ Prison for Kids, featured in the New York Times, set the stage for intensive state policy advocacy across the country; since publication, over 20 states have eliminated fees and fines or transformed restitution practices in their juvenile courts. Jessica has also contributed to federal and state legislation banning solitary confinement for children and supporting educational access and stability for young people in the family regulation system. 

Jessica’s deep interest in community and youth activism led her to found Juveniles for Justice, now called Advocates for Youth Justice, a program of Juvenile Law Center that supports justice system-involved youth in becoming advocates for change.  

Prior to joining Juvenile Law Center in 2006, Jessica was a litigation fellow at the ACLU National Prison Project, where she litigated prison conditions cases in federal court. From 2001-2003, Jessica was a teaching fellow in the Georgetown University Law Center's Street Law in the Community Program. From 2000-2001, Jessica served as a law clerk to the Honorable Warren J. Ferguson on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Jessica is a graduate of Wesleyan University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School and was awarded an LLM in advocacy from Georgetown University Law Center.  Before attending law school, Jessica founded and directed the Teen Health Initiative (now called the Teen Activist Project) at the New York Civil Liberties Union. 

Jessica was appointed by Governor Wolf to serve on Pennsylvania’s Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Committee.  

Jessica’s awards and recognitions include: the Pennsylvania Bar Association Child Advocate of the Year Award (2025), Penn Alumni Impact Award Recognition (2022), Atlantic Philanthropies Fellowship for Racial Equity (2020), and a Philadelphia City Council Citation honoring her work to abolish juvenile legal system fees and fines (2017).

Photo Credit - John Arroyo of Photography Without Borders