Douglas Russell Donnelly is a lawyer practicing adoption law, interstate child custody, guardianship and conservatorship. Douglas received a B.A. degree from Westmont College in 1974, and has been licensed for 49 years. Douglas practices at Donnelly & Evans, LLP in Ventura, CA.
Doug is extremely knowledgable, experienced, & (almost as importantly) truly cares about the children at the center of his cases. In the almost 7 years I have been navigating the probate court, I learned how hard it is to even find a lawyer who is willing to navigate the very particular & complicated nuances of guardianships & adoptions. Probate lawyers would say they only did conservatorships and uncontested guardianships. Family Law lawyers would say they don't do probate at all. Even the lawyers who were willing just didn't have much experience in the area. Not only is Doug familiar with these cases, he specializes in them. He's helped to shape the applicable laws & to defend them on appeal. I cannot express the amount of relief retaining Doug brought. He genuinely cared & I knew from the word GO that he was worth every penny when he executed & filed a document in less than a week that I had been working for months. I highly recommend hiring Doug.
Blessing in disguise! We were looking for an adoption lawyer to assist in our case and was recommended to Douglas. He specializes in out of state adoption proceedings. With Covid-19 it took longer than anticipated but it was definitely worth it. A bit on the pricey side, but you can't put a price tag on adoption. Douglas has great communication skills, explained every step of the way thoroughly, very responsive, and the quality of service is amazing! Thank you Douglas for making our family a legal unit. We will forever be grateful!
We had a complicated contested adoption case. Doug was instrumental winning our case, and winning it decisively and without a single person on our side even having to testify. He was fully invested in our outcome and went to great lengths to study all the exhibits (there was over 3000 pages of texts) to strengthen our case. He was communicative and extremely supportive to us during this stressful time but most importantly he was the most qualified and experienced with the Kelsey S laws.
Our family had an excellent experience working with Douglas Donnelly regarding the adoption of our daughter.
He is very knowledgeable, helpful, attentive to details, and makes the legal process of an open adoption as smooth as can be.
While his services were excellent, he was basically not clear in any overages in his fees. He gave no heads up ballpark figure or warning. When this was pointed out to him, he wanted to suddenly lower his overage fees. This lacks integrity in an attorney. Adoption work is very emotional and he should fully understand that and also that money doesn't grow trees for some people who give him their hard earned money. I would not recommend him.
674 County Square Drive, Suite 203Ventura, CA 93003U.S.A.
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