Biography
Marcia Levy is Associate Professor and Director of Legal Residency at the University of New Hampshire Law School. Prior to joining UNH, Ms. Levy was the Executive Director of Volunteers of Legal Service (VOLS), which provides free legal services to low-income New Yorkers, by partnering with over 200 community groups and over 60 law firms and company pro bono. Previously, she was the Executive Director of Pro Bono Partnership. Levy's distinguished legal career includes experience as a practicing attorney, professor, clinical director, public interest program director, pro bono counsel, professional development administrator, trial advocacy trainer and program director for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy (NITA) and international trainer for organizations such as ABA ROLI and the CEELI Institute.
From 2007 to 2011, Levy was Special Counsel for Pro Bono and Director of Professional Development at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, directing the professional and associate development programs for the firm, which has over 750 lawyers in 12 offices worldwide.
Prior to her years at Sullivan & Cromwell, Levy spent 14 years in legal education, as a Clinical Law Professor and the first Director of the Eric Neisser Public Interest Program at Rutgers University School of Law, Dean of Skills Programs at Hofstra University School of Law, Director of the Clinical Law Programs at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, Legal Practice Professor at NYLS, and Director of Externships at Columbia Law School.
Levy has served as an assistant federal defender for the Federal Defender's Office in the Eastern District of New York, and a staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society Prisoners' Rights Project. She was recently appointed to the NYS Covid-19 Task Force, and is Special Advisor to the Permanent Commission on Access to Justice. She is a member of the NYC Bar Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service, She has presented at numerous conferences, including the Pro Bono Institute and Equal Justice Conferences, and has been the keynote at public service events at Stanford and Albany Law Schools. In 2007, she was awarded the Robert E. Oliphant Service to NITA Award, and had been a NYSBA Empire Awardee for Pro Bono Service. In 2015, she was named a NYLJ Lawyer who Leads by Example for her public service.
In addition, Levy has developed, directed, and taught in advocacy training programs--working domestically with organizations such as the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA), and internationally with ABA-ROLI, USRF, PILnet, and the CEELI Institute and others in Egypt, Jordan, Russia, China and many countries in Central and Eastern Europe. She lived in Moscow, Russia in the Fall, 2000, working on an ABA project and with local legal faculty on the development of clinical legal education, and spent 5 years working with Russian colleagues from four law faculties to develop interactive learning teaching techniques.
