Notable Alumni

Former Executive Director

A native Floridian, Marcia K. Cypen was born in Jacksonville, Florida, and raised in Miami. She came from a family of lawyers--her father, uncle, and three cousins all practiced law together. Yet she was a child of the sixties with a passion for social justice, not private practice. She found her home at Legal Services of Greater Miami, Inc. in the summer of 1974 after her first year of law school, when Legal Services was only eight years old. Marcia devoted her professional career to Legal Services for more than 40 years until she retired as Executive Director in 2017. She now serves as Executive Director Emeritus and continues to provide leadership for the organization.

Marcia began as an attorney in the Health and Income Maintenance Unit, successfully handling a major federal Medicaid case early in her career. She always, however, had a strong drive to be a manager and a leader in the program and seized the opportunity to become Deputy Director under John Powell in 1981. When Powell left in 1983, she was appointed as Executive Director--one of the first women to fill that role in a Legal Services Corporation-funded program.

For 34 years, Marcia successfully led Legal Services through both good and bad times--including major funding cuts which resulted in layoffs and retrenchment, and growth periods resulting from new and increased funding. Under her leadership, Legal Services grew into a nationally regarded model program with creative approaches to solving the legal problems of the poor. Marcia built a strong team of managers who, like her, are committed to excellence and high-quality legal representation.

Marcia was also highly successful in bringing together local legal and business leaders to develop a strong fundraising campaign. Led by Chesterfield Smith, the Together, We Must Campaign raised funds for Legal Services to purchase its main office building on Biscayne Boulevard in 1997--a building that provided a home for Legal Services and other nonprofits for 20 years. The Campaign now raises more than $500,000 annually and provides a steady stream of revenue to support the vital work done by Legal Services. In addition, the sale of the building in 2014 provided the organization with sufficient resources to purchase a new building and establish the Legal Services of Greater Miami Foundation which makes the organization's future more secure.

Throughout much of her career as Executive Director, Marcia was a working mom with two small children born in 1984 and 1986. She was able to manage both her career and her family with support from her mother Raye Cypen (now deceased) and her husband Steven Wisotsky.