Jacqueline M. O'Donnell graduated from the Honors Program at the University of Scranton in 1987, with a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice. She thereafter attended Seton Hall Law School full time, while also working at law firms and the Newark office of the Public Defender. While at the Public Defender’s Office, she was appointed Director of the Juvenile Justice clinic and was responsible for
handling all of the bail hearings in the criminal courts. After law school, she continued with the Adult Division of the Newark Public Defender’s Office, and also worked for various prestigious firms in Essex, Bergen and Morris Counties, practicing medical malpractice, personal injury and insurance defense work. In 1993, Ms. O’Donnell opened her own practice in Sparta, which years later became O’Donnell and Dumbroff. She was sworn in as President of the Sussex County Bar Association in 2001. After September 11, 2011, she worked tirelessly on behalf of Trial Lawyers Care, which was created to deliver free legal representation to 9/11 families. Trial Lawyers Care became the largest, most successful single pro bono legal representation project in the history of American jurisprudence. Driven by a national tragedy of unprecedented dimensions and by the simple desire to help that had brought them into their profession in the first place, more than 1000 trial lawyers provided free legal services to the victims of the terrorist attacks. O’Donnell was one of them; assisting three families of victims here in Sussex County from that horrific event. O’Donnell was also frequently located at Liberty State Park offering free legal advice in the trailers located there. Showing dedication to the practice of law and compassion to fellow attorneys, Ms. O’Donnell acquired the practice of another local attorney when he was deployed to Iraq. All the monies earned on those cases went directly to his family. She is highly regarded by both clients and attorneys alike.
