Danielle McClain is the Dale and James J. Pinto Fellow on the U.S. Advocacy and Litigation Team. She earned her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, where she completed a Certificate in Refugees and Humanitarian Emergencies and received the Georgetown Human Rights Institute’s 2025 Bettina E. Pruckmayr Memorial Award.
Danielle has assisted in representing criminal clients at the Public Defender Service of D.C., advocating before international bodies on behalf of political prisoners at Freedom Now, and prosecuting war crimes in Ukraine with the International Criminal Justice Initiative. She also participated in Georgetown Law’s Human Rights Advocacy in Action Practicum, where her team pursued restitution for Haiti’s unjust “independence debt” through U.N. mechanisms.
Her commitment to community building shaped her leadership at Georgetown, where she served as Social Advocacy Chair of the Black Law Students Association, Vice President of the African Law Society, and a Competition Director for the Alternative Dispute Resolution division of Georgetown Law’s Barristers’ Council. She also engaged directly with congressional legislators to advocate for more humane immigration and foreign policies with the International Refugee Assistance Project and the Council on American Islamic Relations.
Danielle’s work centers on advancing the rights of immigrants and incarcerated individuals, reducing the scope of mass incarceration in the United States, and holding corporations accountable for human rights abuses. She is committed to fighting for justice at the local, national, and international levels and dedicated to supporting movements that uplift marginalized communities and drive systemic change.