DANOFF & DONNELLY, ATTORNEYS AT LAW
PRINCIPALS – For 20 years Danoff & Donnelly has specialized in federal labor and employment law. We serve as legal advisors, performing various personnel, employment, EEO and labor relation functions for federal and other governmental agencies before the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Foreign Service Grievance Board, Office of Special Counsel (OSC) and in federal courts We have served as mediators, performed EEO counseling, conducted EEO investigations, special inquiries and grievance examinations, performed complaint adjudications, and prepared analyses and final agency decisions for numerous federal agencies . D&D’s principals are certified as Hearing Officers for the U.S. Senate's Office of Senate Fair Employment Practices. The Defense Department's Logistics Agency has certified us as Grievance Complaints Examiners and EEO Investigators. We have successfully represented agencies in both performance based and adverse actions before the MSPB, and in all bases of claims before the EEOC. We have been involved in all aspects and types of MSPB, OSC, EEOC, FLRA cases, including individual and class action suits, whistle blower, disparate treatment/ disparate impact, failure to accommodate and retaliation issues as well as issues of racial and sexual harassment. We have also served as grievance examiners issuing findings and decisions for numerous federal agencies including: The Administrative Office of the President; National Institutes of Health, International Trade Commission; the Environmental Protection Agency; NASA; Federal Reserve Board; Selective Service System; U.S. Department of State; U.S. General Accounting Office; National Science Foundation, National Gallery of Art, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Resolution Trust Corporation, Overseas Private Investment Corporation, Office of Personnel Management; U.S.Export-Import Bank; Bureau of Mines; U.S. Department of Justice, Agency for International Development, and the U.S. Senate The firm's principals - Allan Danoff and Marguerite Donnelly each have over 23 years of experience in the field of federal personnel law. Both have been attorneys in this field since 1978. Both have represented private sector employers and federal agencies in proceedings before EEOC, MSPB, OSC, FLRA and in federal court. Both have been the presiding Hearing Officer in Senate Fair Employment Practice hearings. Both taught courses in employment law in conjunction with and have provided training in Employment Litigation Workshops which the National Employment Law Institute sponsors. Ms. Donnelly has contributed to and appeared as an expert in this field in an instructional video on Sexual Harassment produced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Mr. Danoff has testified as an expert in for the Department of Justice, Office of Special Counsel and has been consulted with by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regarding the training of their investigators. Specifically:
Allan S. Danoff is an attorney specializing in labor and federal employment law and admitted to the MD bar. Employed from 1972-1985 at the EEOC. He rapidly advanced from a GS-11 to GM-15, while receiving over 7 performance awards including 3 outstanding performance awards during his last three years at EEOC while serving as a GM-15 Division Director at the Assistant General Counsel level. His EEOC experience included Investigating and preparing decisions as to the merits of over 300 discrimination charges brought under each statute EEOC Administers; Supervising the preparation and presenting for EEOC Commissioners' approval, all non-precedent class action Title VII decisions; drafting EEOC's legal standards manual chapters, instructing EEOC staff how to analyze discrimination charge evidence and write findings and decisions; and issuing decisions for the Senate Hearing Board which have been adopted by the Senate Ethics Committee and have been upheld by the U.S. Circuit Court. Since co-founding D&D, he has investigated /conducted counseling for thousands of cases, written hundreds of final agency decisions as has served as counsel for numerous federal agencies in EEOC and MSPB proceedings. He has served as Project Director or Co-Director on all prior and existing federal EEO contracts. Presently, these include contracts with GSA, NASA, NIH, GPO, and GAO. They also include continuing Blanket Purchase Order Agreements with the Selective Service Agency, the Export Import Bank. MWAA; and FDIC. He has testified in court as an expert witness on the processing of EEO Complaints in the federal sector. He has also conducted training on federal EEO investigations and processing for numerous federal agencies. He has represented the U.S. Export-Import Bank, Selective Service System, Office of Inspector General, HUD, and Agency for International Development in proceedings before the MSPB, EEOC, OSC, FSGB, FLRA and in Federal Court. Significantly, of over 100 cases where Mr. Danoff has served as the agency representative the agency prevailed in litigation or negotiated the settlement desired.
He has served as adjudicator in employment cases involving National Institutes of Health, World Bank, U.S. Department of State; National Science Foundation, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; Resolution Trust Corporation, Bureau of Mines, Agency for International Development and as Mediator in cases for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Institutes of Health, and other agencies.
Marguerite A. Donnelly is an accomplished trial attorney admitted to the MD, NY & DC bars. During 8 years as an EEOC trial attorney, she conducted EEO investigations and prevailed as lead and sole counsel in numerous employment discrimination hearings and trials in federal courts around the nation. She also received several performance awards, promotions from GS-11 to GS-14 and received outstanding performance ratings. Since leaving federal employment and founding the firm, Ms. Donnelly has investigated well over a thousand EEO Complaints, conducted EEO counseling in hundreds of matters, written numerous findings for various federal agencies and has issued decisions for the Senate Hearing Board which have been adopted by the Senate Ethics Committee and have been upheld by the U.S. Circuit Court. Ms. Donnelly has also successfully represented private individuals against the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and has successfully litigated EO and labor cases in U.S. District Court. On more than one occasion she has been asked by NASA and other federal agencies to serve as a designated EO Officer on sensitive matters, has briefed upper level management in connection with sensitive matters and has provided “of counsel” input where requested in EEO Complaint processing. She has been asked by the Department of State’s Foreign Service Grievance Board to serve and has provided her skills in writing proposed findings in their investigations.
Ms. Donnelly has written articles for various federal employment publications and has contributed to a instructional video on sexual harassment issues produced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Investigative Staff
All investigative staff are former federal EO Investigators and or attorneys. We require staff to meet the EEOC MD-110 directive regarding training and we also try to staff with seasoned federal investigators. We do not staff with neophyte investigators/ counselors or mediators. We have 45 counselors/investigators stationed throughout the United States. We assure that all are kept abreast of current developments in case law, rules and regulations. Despite this we always have one of the D&D Principals review any work product prior to submission. D&D does have an internship program but we do not assign interns to work an investigative/ counseling matter alone. We aim to “get things done right on the first take”. All D&D investigators have over 15 years of federal EO experience