Karen B. Marcou

Karen Barker Marcou is a Co-Founder and Board Chair of the DC Volunteer Lawyers Project (DCVLP). Ms. Barcou transitioned to the Board of Directors in 2019 after 12 years as Co-Executive Director and Executive Director. She has over fifteen years of experience handling family law and domestic violence cases representing low-income individuals in the District of Columbia. Prior to co-founding DCVLP, Ms. Marcou was an attorney at Neighborhood Legal Services and also served as a pro bono Guardian ad litem for at-risk children. She is a member of the Mayor’s Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board. 

Ms. Marcou received her JD magna cum laude from Washington College of Law, American University, and a BA from Middlebury College. She was awarded the Women’s Bar Association of DC’s Star of the Bar Award in 2009 and 2015, and in 2018, Ms. Marcou received the Council for Court Excellence’s Justice Potter Stewart Award, which recognizes individuals or organizations whose work on the administration of justice has made a significant contribution to the legal system.