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Law School Faculty, Administration, and Services
Northern California Innocence Project (NCIP)
Linda Starr
Legal Director
Linda Starr is the legal director of the NCIP. She has a B.S. in entomology from Ohio State University and a J.D. from the University of Southern California Law Center. After graduation from law school, she clerked for the California Court of Appeal in Los Angeles. She served six years as an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn, New York, and then worked as associate counsel to the comptroller of the city of New York. Upon moving to San Jose in 1991, she worked as a staff attorney at the Sixth District Appellate Project and then began private practice, mainly representing indigent criminal defendants on appeal. In 2001, she co-founded the NCIP and has served as legal director since that time.
Rhonda Donato
Supervising Attorney
Rhonda Donato supervises students through the Innocence Project clinic at Santa Clara University and litigates post-conviction cases in Central and Northern California. Ms. Donato was previously a staff attorney for Justice Paul Haerle on the First District Court of Appeal. She also worked as a litigation associate at McCutchen, Doyle, Brown and Enersen in San Francisco. Ms. Donato served as an extern for the Honorable Melvin Brunetti on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal in Reno, Nevada. She graduated, cum laude, from Santa Clara University Law School in 1989 where she was a recipient of the Emery Law Scholarship and a member of the Law Review.
Jill Kent
Supervising Attorney
Supervising Attorney Jill Kent is a San Jose native. She received her B.A. in political science from San Jose State University in 1989 and her J.D. from Santa Clara University School of Law in 1992. While in law school, she helped write a successful clemency petition for a battered woman convicted of killing her abuser. Upon graduation, she assisted victims of the 1992 Los Angeles riots who had lost their businesses due to looting and fires. Kent worked as a legal aid attorney in Southern California, focusing on family, landlord/tenant, battered women, and redevelopment issues. In 2002, she returned to the Bay Area and joined the Northern California Innocence Project at Santa Clara Law. In addition to her work with NCIP, Kent is a panel attorney with the Sixth District Appellate Project.
Kathryn Ross
Supervising Attorney
Kathryn Ross worked as a deputy public defender in Santa Clara County where she tried many serious felony cases, supervised misdemeanor attorneys and ran a felony negotiation calendar. She received her B.A. from U.C. Berkeley and law degree from Santa Clara University where she co-founded the school’s "Street Law" program. While in law school she spent a semester abroad in South Africa interning for the African National Congress’ Constitution Committee helping to draft a constitution for a democratic government. Before joining NCIP she worked as a Lecturer in Law at Santa Clara University, teaching Criminal Procedure and Advanced Criminal Litigation.