Donahue was born on October 4, 1941, in
New York City. From 1955 to 1959, he was educated at the
Portsmouth Priory School in
Portsmouth, Rhode Island, where he was
valedictorian of his high school class. Donahue then attended
Harvard College, where he completed a
senior thesis titled "Romeo's Sweet New Style" and graduated
magna cum laude in 1962 with a
Bachelor of Arts in classics and English. In June 1962, he entered
Yale Law School, enrolling in a special program in legal history under the supervision of Yale professors W. H. Dunham and
Stephan Kuttner. Donahue became the articles editor and book review editor of
The Yale Law Journal and earned his
Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) with membership in the
Order of the Coif in 1965. He researched
Pope Alexander III as a law student, which later formed the basis of his research into medieval marriage law. After graduating from law school, Donahue was an
attorney-advisor for the
United States Air Force from 1965 to 1967, then was
general counsel for the President's Commission on Postal Organization. From 1968 to 1979, he was a professor of law at the
University of Michigan Law School, first as an
assistant professor (1968–1971), then as an
associate professor (1971–1973) and finally as a full professor (1973–1979). He joined the faculty of
Harvard Law School as a professor in 1980 and received its appointment as the Paul A. Freund Professor of Law in June 1995. == Awards and honors ==