Katelyn Donaldson

Katelyn A. Donaldson is a Public Interest Fellow in the Oakland, CA office. Katelyn received her J.D. from American University Washington College of Law in 2025.

While attending American University, Katelyn cultivated her skills through a wide array of academic and hands-on experiences. As a Student Attorney in the International Human Rights Law Clinic, Katelyn represented Guatemalan nationals in affirmative asylum proceedings and strategized with federal public defenders to mitigate a death row inmate’s sentence. She was also a Senior Staffer on American University Law Review. Katelyn’s comment, Captured Without Consent: Reckoning with Non-Volitional Disclosures Around the Home in Long-Term Pole Camera Cases, was published by American University Law Review in 2024. Additionally, Katelyn was a Constitutional Law Teaching Assistant and did research for Professor Maya Manian on the impacts of abortion restrictions on prenatal genetic counseling post-Dobbs.

Katelyn expanded her professional development in D.C. with rewarding off-campus experiences, to include drafting two memorandum opinions resolving dispositive motions as a Judicial Intern at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Additionally, Katelyn interned at the U.S. Department of Labor, where she drafted an appellate brief and analyzed foreign laws and enforcement efforts for compliance with international child labor conventions. Katelyn also spent a year interning for Levy Firestone Muse LLP, where she helped draft motions, produce legal memoranda, and develop facts for several civil cases.

Prior to her legal career, Katelyn was a caseworker at the Franklin County Child Support Enforcement Agency in Columbus, Ohio. Katelyn received her B.A. in English with a minor in Human Rights from the Ohio State University in 2020.