Lackawanna County Lawyer Michael J. McDonald to Serve as PBA President-elect

HARRISBURG (May 5, 2022) — Lackawanna County lawyer Michael J. McDonald, a founding partner in the Scranton law firm of McDonald and MacGregor PC, will become president-elect of the Pennsylvania Bar Association (PBA) at the conclusion of the association’s May 13 House of Delegates meeting in Hershey.

McDonald will serve as the association’s 2023-24 president.

McDonald is concluding his current term as PBA vice president. From May 2016 through May 2019, McDonald served as PBA secretary.

McDonald is a member of the PBA Aeronautical and Space Law Section, Civil Law Section, Finance Committee, Health Care Law Committee, Investment Committee, Membership Development Committee, Minority Bar Committee, Solo and Small Firm Section and Workers’ Compensation Law Section. He is a PABAR-PAC zone director.

McDonald is a past co-chair of the PBA Bar Leadership Institute, past co-vice chair of PBA Strategic Planning Committee and a past member of the Minority Bar Committee Diversity and Attorney Conference Sponsorship Subcommittee.

From 2007 to 2010, McDonald has served as a PBA zone governor on the PBA Board of Governors, representing lawyers from Bradford, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Monroe, Pike, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Wayne and Wyoming counties. He previously served as a zone delegate and a county delegate to the PBA Young Lawyers Division.

McDonald received a PBA Special Achievement Award in 2015 for his leadership and service.

He is a former vice president and a Commonwealth Club member of the Pennsylvania Bar Foundation, the charitable affiliate of the PBA. In 2013, McDonald established the foundation’s Joseph T. McDonald Memorial Scholarship Program that annually provides a $3,000 scholarship to a fulltime, 3L Pennsylvania resident involved in the Penn State Dickinson Law trial advocacy program. 

McDonald is a former president of the Lackawanna Bar Association and its Young Lawyers Division. He received the association’s President’s Award for outstanding service to the legal profession. He also is a former president of the Federal Bar Association, Middle District of Pennsylvania Chapter, and former president of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers’ Association. He is a past governor of the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association.

McDonald has been chosen for certification and/or membership in the National Board of Trial Advocacy, the National Board of Civil Pretrial Practice Advocacy, the American Board of Trial Advocates and the Million Dollar Advocates Forum. He is recognized as a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer and listed in Best Lawyers in America.

Also active in the community, McDonald has served as vice chairman, Audit Committee chair and as a member of the Board of Directors for Fidelity Bank, a community bank headquartered in Dunmore with offices throughout northeastern Pennsylvania and the Lehigh Valley. 

He also has served on the Board of Trustees for Scranton Preparatory School, as well as the Board of Directors for the Holy Cross School System of the Diocese of Scranton, Meals on Wheels of Lackawanna County and Lackawanna Pro Bono Inc., which provides legal services to low-income residents.

He is a graduate of Villanova University and Dickinson School of Law, which awarded him the International Academy of Trial Lawyers Award for distinguished achievement in trial advocacy.

Founded in 1895, the Pennsylvania Bar Association strives to promote justice, professional excellence and respect for the law; improve public understanding of the legal system; facilitate access of legal services; and serve the lawyer members of the state’s largest organized bar association.