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Katayoun A. Donnelly

Katayoun Donnelly focuses her practice on complex commercial litigation. She has advised clients through both trial and appellate phases of litigation in areas including class action, antitrust, contract disputes, intellectual property, product liability, and regulatory matters.

Prior to joining Baker Hostetler, Ms. Donnelly was a judicial clerk for the Honorable Stephanie K. Seymour of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and was selected as a 2010 Temple Bar Scholar based on Judge Seymour’s nomination. Ms. Donnelly also served as a law clerk to the Honorable Edward W. Nottingham, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, and worked in the Appeals Section of the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague. In 2006, Ms. Donnelly received an Honorable Mention award as Best Oralist at the Thirteenth Annual Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot, placing her in the top two dozen of over 900 competitors.

Ms. Donnelly is a member of the American, Colorado and Denver Bar associations and an honorary member of the Commercial Bar Association (U.K.). She serves as a Liaison Member on the Chief Justice’s Commission on the Legal Profession and as a member of the Appellate Subcommittee of the Colorado Bar Association (CBA), where she has been involved in promoting the first statewide appellate pro bono program. Ms. Donnelly is also the Denver Bar Association Board of Governors’ representative to the CBA, a litigation member of the Colorado Lawyers Committee’s Sixth Amendment Task Force, and an active member of the William E. Doyle Inn of Court and the Faculty of Federal Advocates.

Her recent representative matters include:

• Counsel for Amicus Curiae, filed on behalf of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, in a case involving the constitutionality of the Stolen Valor Act under the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment. United States v. Alvarez (Supreme Court of the United States 2012)
• Lead trial counsel in a four-day jury trial for violation of plaintiff’s Eighth Amendment rights. Smith v. Nichols (D. Colo. 2012)
• Lead appellate counsel in a case involving standing under Colorado Revised Statute Section 14-10-123(1)(c). Parental Responsibilities of DT (Colo. App. 2012)