Claire Donohue joins the WCL community from The George Washington University School of Law where she was a Friedman Fellow with the Family Justice Litigation Clinic. Prior to devoting her career to clinical legal education, Professor Donohue worked as a Public Defender first with the Committee for Public Counsel Services in Massachusetts. There, Professor Donohue represented indigent defendants in all aspects of criminal litigation from bail to disposition and also probation surrender; this included, but was not limited to litigating numerous bench trials and jury trials. Upon relocating the DC Metro area, Professor Donohue accepted appointments on post-conviction appeals out of Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. She also served intermittently as part-time faculty at Montgomery College in the Criminal Justice Department.

Professor Donohue attended Boston College Law School as Public Interest Scholar. In 2005, she graduated with a dual degree, a Masters in Social Work from the Boston College Graduate School of Social Work and a Juris Doctorate. While in school she worked at Community Legal Services and Counseling Center serving as a project coordinator for an emerging program of interdisciplinary legal services. She also served on the editorial staff of the Third World Law Journal (now Journal of Law and Social Policy) at Boston College Law School. Upon graduation Professor Donohue worked as a judicial law clerk for the Superior Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.