Claire Donohue
Claire Donohue joined Boston College Law School in 2018 as an Assistant Clinical Professor. Professor Donohue coordinates social work services for the clinics in the Center for Experiential Learning. Professor Donohue’s teaching within the clinic and in her classes incorporates social work methodology and theory with legal theory and practice.
Professor Donohue joins the BC Law community from law clinics in the District of Columbia. Professor Donohue was a Practitioner in Residence at American University’s Washington College of Law. She directed the Domestic Violence Clinic, where she taught students with a docket of family law, civil protection orders, victim witness advocacy, and immigration cases. Previously, Professor Donohue was a Friedman Fellow with the Family Justice Litigation Clinic and The George Washington University School of Law, where she also earned an LLM. Here she guided students through family law and domestic violence law practice. She has also served as part-time faculty at Montgomery College in the Criminal Justice Department.
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; and thenaccepting appointments on post-conviction appeals out of Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.
Professor Donohue attended Boston College Law School as Public Interest Scholar. She graduated with a dual degree, a Masters in Social Work from the Boston College Graduate School of Social Work and a Juris Doctorate. During this time she was a project coordinator for an emerging program of interdisciplinary legal services at the Community Legal Services and Counseling Center in Cambridge, MA. 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.