Born and raised in Springfield, Ill., Donald M. Craven attended Pleasant Plains High School before graduating from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., in 1978. He attended Southern Illinois University School of Law in Carbondale, where he taught legal writing and moot court courses and was an articles editor for the Southern Illinois University Law Journal. Upon graduating in 1981, Mr. Craven went to work for the Springfield law firm of Londrigan & Potter (now Londrigan, Potter & Randle), where he practiced general business law for five years.

Mr. Craven later joined his father, former Illinois Appellate Court Justice James C. Craven, in practice in Springfield, concentrating from 1986 to 1989 on media issues and voting rights litigation on behalf of black and Hispanic communities in Illinois and California.

He now concentrates on libel and First Amendment issues, access to government meetings and records, and the business issues of concern to newspapers. Mr. Craven has counseled executive directors and board members of the Illinois Press Association, Illinois Broadcasters Association, and Illinois News Broadcasters Association on association activities, both legal and legislative.