Faculty

Donyale Reavis

Lecturer-in-Law

Donyale Yvette Hooper- Reavis is an attorney who specializes in counseling primariy high-net worth clients in sports and entertaiment with a host of commercial and wealth management-related transactions.  From venture capital funded start-up entities, to charitable trust and family foundation management matters, Ms. Reavis' practice as managing partner of an all-female sports and entertainment law boutique spans the past decade of her twenty-year practice.  Among her entertainment and professional sports clients, the National Basketball Players Assocatiion recently asked Ms. Reavis to assist with the design and buildout of a retirement program for former players.


Ms. Reavis has also stewarded a multi-million dollar public foundation, The Core Scholars Foundation, a quasi-governmental partnership between the City and the School District of Philadelphia.  Under her leadership, CORE has distributed more than $6 million through its scholarship programs, built city, state and federal agency-funded partnerships and extended its brand across multiple media platforms, while increasing its endowment to more than $5 million dollars. Ms. Reavis graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Fels Graduate School of Government, receiving a Toll Scholarship, Presidential Woman of Color and Public Service Leadership awards upon graduation with a JD/MPA in 1999.  A cross-disciplinary lifer, as an undergrad at Boston University, Ms. Reavis’ dual-majored in Political Science and International Relations. Licensed to practice law in three states and the District of Columbia, Ms. Reavis, has provided counsel to foundations, trusts, non-profit organizations and charter schools in the United States, Europe and in Africa for nearly twenty years, and brings a wealth of expertise to managing transitions, building national and international philanthropic strategies, board governance, and general foundation administration. 


Ms. Reavis moved to Washington, DC following law school, initially as a Corporate and Intellectual Property associate with Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP for three years, and later as a contract attorney in the Tax group of Sidley & Austin in New York where she edited the PLI two-volume Art Law treatise.  Prior to joining Reavis & Associates, Donyale was COO and general counsel for a venture capital funded fashion apparel line, served briefly as acting Assistant Counsel with a publicly traded apparel company in New York, and was outside technology counsel to the Andrew Mellon Foundation.  Donyale briefly served as a Senior Associate with a 125-year old Maine law firm, Pierce Atwood in Boston, Massachusetts before returning to Philadelphia. Deeply passionate about all-things-outdoors and sports-related, among her charitable and arts related pursuits, Ms. Reavis is a co-founder of Spring Garden Pictures, a film production company created to encourage children to explore their world through nature. Donyale is a Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy®, and has completed the Certified Private Wealth Advisor education program of the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business.  An avid runner, baker, and global traveler, Donyale has run five marathons and visited twenty countries and a dozen islands.

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