Holtzman Vogel Adds Karen Donnelly, Expanding Firm’s Renowned Nonprofit, Advocacy, and Investigations Practice
Donnelly builds and counsels nonprofit organizations, litigates First Amendment cases in the federal courts of appeals, and defends clients in congressional, FTC, IRS, and state attorney general investigations
Holtzman Vogel today announced that Karen M. Donnelly has joined the firm as a Partner in its Washington, D.C. office. Donnelly advises nonprofit and tax-exempt organizations across their full life cycle, litigates First Amendment matters for advocacy and charitable organizations, and defends clients in government investigations and audits.
“Karen has an exceptional background and brings tremendous talent to a practice that is already among the nation’s leading teams advising tax-exempt organizations,” said Jill Holtzman Vogel, Managing Partner of Holtzman Vogel. “She understands the full range of legal, regulatory, and operational challenges nonprofits face and brings exactly the kind of judgment clients need as the landscape continues to evolve at both the state and federal levels.”
Donnelly counsels nonprofit and tax-exempt organizations from formation and qualification for exemption under Section 501 of the Internal Revenue Code through mergers, acquisitions, and dissolution. For organizations without in-house counsel, she functions as outside general counsel on corporate governance, fundraising registration and compliance, tax compliance, contracts, trademark and licensing, and the reinstatement of revoked exemptions.
She has litigated First Amendment matters nationwide and argued before the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fifth, Tenth and D.C. Circuits and the Supreme Court of Missouri, much of it defending the constitutional right to solicit charitable contributions. Donor privacy runs through her work. Donnelly coordinated and filed the amicus brief in Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta on behalf of The Nonprofit Alliance Foundation, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the Association of Fundraising Professionals and 123 nonprofit organizations across the ideological spectrum, and in 2025 filed a related brief in the Sixth Circuit challenging the IRS requirement that charities disclose major donors' names and home addresses.
On the defense side, Donnelly represents nonprofit and commercial clients in state attorney general investigations, congressional investigations, FTC investigations, and IRS audits. In 2025 she secured a multimillion-dollar settlement between a professional fundraiser and the FTC and 22 states. In 2026 she resolved a U.S. Senate committee investigation into a federal grant awarded to a nonprofit organization with children's hospital and higher education subgrantees.
"Organizations tend to call a lawyer at one of three moments, when they are being built, when their advocacy is challenged, and when the government starts asking questions," Donnelly said. "I have worked all three, and Holtzman Vogel's national litigation and regulatory platform lets me do that at a much higher level for clients."
Donnelly joins Holtzman Vogel from a nonprofit-focused firm, Copilevitz, Lam & Raney, in Kansas City. She holds a J.D. from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law and dual bachelor's degrees in journalism and English literature from the University of Kansas. Her arrival follows the additions of high-profile partners Brian Nieves, Abhishek Kambli, Kevin Kreutz and Akiva Shapiro, and the launch of the firm's Faith-Based Organizations Practice Group.
