About Donnelly & Donnelly – Alternative Dispute Resolutions

With over 30 years of combined, extensive experience, and many successful end-results, ADR Representatives Lesa Donnelly and Robert Donnelly will provide you with affordable representation for your government agency difficulties. We can advise you on the often complex regulations, processes and requirements in your efforts to achieve a positive result.

Lesa Donnelly is a Northern California native. She worked for USDA, Forest Service, in California (Region 5) in administrative and collateral fire positions from 1978 to 2002. She retired from the Forest Service in 2002 under a Class Action settlement agreement.

Lesa has represented Federal employees in civil rights and employment matters for over twenty years. She and her brother, Robert Donnelly, currently represent federal employees at USDA, DOI, USPS, VA, DHS/TSA, and CAL Fire in EEOC and MSPB cases.

While working for the US Forest Service, Lesa filed a sex discrimination class action lawsuit in 1995 (Donnelly v. Glickman; Donnelly v. Veneman) on behalf of 6000 Forest Service women in California, based on sexual harassment, hostile work environment and reprisal. The Federal Court approved a Consent Decree in 2000 that provided injunctive relief and individual settlements to class members, appointing Lesa as a Monitor for oversight and implementation of what was known as the "Donnelly Settlement Agreement."

Since 1998 Lesa has been Vice President of the USDA Coalition of Minority Employees and the advisor on Women's Issues. Via the Coalition and individually, she represents federal employees by working on civil rights policy matters with Agency officials, congress, the White House, civil rights organizations, and the media. Since 1998 Lesa has worked on civil rights policy issues with the House and Senate, meeting with political officials such as Charles Grassley, Jackie Speier, John Lewis, Patsy Mink, Corey Booker, Tom Harkin, Elijah Cummings, Jason Chaffetz, Trey Gowdy, Maxine Waters, Adolphus Towns, Darrell Issa, Mike Honda, Ron Wyden, Nancy Pelosi, John McCain, Barbara Lee, and more.

In both May 2008 and December 2016, Lesa testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on sexual harassment, sexual assault, and workplace violence against federally employed women. She has been invited to the White House three times to discuss civil rights issues.

Lesa was instrumental in exposing the civil rights violations against women at Grand Canyon National Park, the following congressional hearings with Oversight and Reform, and the resulting nation-wide investigation of sexual misconduct at the National Park Service (2014-2016).

Lesa currently represents a class action complaint filed in August 2014, on behalf of USDA, Forest Service female firefighters in Region 5, California.

Lesa has given presentations and participated in civil rights panel discussions in conjunction with the USDA Coalition of Minority Employees, the NAAPC, The Coalition 4 Change, Blacks in Government, No FEAR Coalition, and the National Whistleblowers Conference. Lesa has been interviewed on Dateline, PBS, CNN, NPR, Pacifica Radio, and other national/local TV and radio media. She has had interviews published in the New York Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Huffington Post, Sacramento Bee, L.A. Times, USA Today, the Associated Press, Reuters, High Country News, and other written media.