As a Cleveland criminal defense attorney,  I offer my clients a wealth of experience and expertise.  I have earned a reputation as an honest, aggressive and successful advocate for my clients. During my thirty years of  involvement in the justice system, I have been a county prosecutor, a city prosecutor and defense attorney.  I have personally tried over 400 cases.  I try cases in Federal, State and Municipal Court. 

Over the last three years I have represented five lawyers who were the subjects of criminal investigations.  Fortunately two of the lawyers were never charged.  Two other lawyers plead to misdemeanors and were able to keep their law license.  The last attorney was sentenced to local incarceration.

Pursuing justice is a tradition in my family. My father, Dan McDonnell was an attorney. Both of his law partners became members of the Ohio House of Representatives and then were elected Judges of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas.

I attended Yale University,as a starting player, on three Ivy League championship football teams, and was selected first team All Ivy and All East in 1976 and 1977. Much as I loved living on the East Coast, I recognized that my roots were in Cleveland and that my dream was to practice law with my father.  I returned to Cleveland and attended law school at Cleveland Marshall College of Law.

My first position as a young attorney was as an assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor for five years.  During that time, I tried over 100 felony cases. I was trained by seasoned criminal attorneys.  I had the opportunity to work with my sister Nancy McDonnell for two of those years in the prosecutor’s office. Nancy has gone on to became a Cuyahoga County Common Please Judge and also served a term as the Presiding Judge for Common Please Court. 

I left the prosecutor’s office and realized my dream to practice law with my father for eighteen years before his death. I currently have my own firm and concentrate my time entirely on criminal defense .