Our team

Marla Spindel is the co-founder and Executive Director of DC KinCare Alliance, where she oversees all of the organization’s operations and spearheads its impact litigation and advocacy work.  Prior to founding DC Kincare Alliance, Ms. Spindel co-founded the DC Volunteer Lawyers Project, now known as Volunteer Legal Advocates (“VLA”), where she managed its Child Advocacy Practice for ten years and then acted as Special Counsel, focusing on national and D.C. child welfare policy.  She currently serves on VLA’s Advisory Board. Ms. Spindel’s advocacy work at VLA led her to establish DC Kincare Alliance to support relatives who care for at-risk D.C. children by providing education, legal representation, and advocacy. She has practiced family law in D.C. for more than 15 years, which includes appointment to the D.C. Superior Court’s Counsel for Child Abuse and Neglect Attorney Panel, serving on the Court’s Domestic Relations Branch Subcommittee, and advocating for and assisting the Court with drafting the Practice Standards for Guardians Ad Litem in Custody and Related Consolidated Cases and the DC Superior Court’s Handbook for Self-Represented Litigants.  Ms. Spindel presented on kinship issues at the American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law’s 2022 National Conference, as well as the Child Welfare League of America’s 2018 and 2019 Annual Conferences.  She also has authored various articles and white papers, including “Kinship Diversion in the District of Columbia:  A Review of Local Practice to Inform National Policy,” available at https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/grandfamilies/vol5/iss1/4/, and “THE CIVIL GIDEON: The Case for a Civil Right to Counsel.” In 2020, Ms. Spindel was chosen as one of 100 Child Welfare League of America Champions for Children.  She earned a J.D., with honors, from George Washington University Law School and a B.A. in Government from Cornell University. Ms. Spindel was recognized by the Women’s Bar Association of D.C. as a Star of the Bar in 2009 and 2014.