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Partner
Reed Smith LLP
Margaret “Maisie” McDonald is a partner in Reed Smith’s Insurance Recovery Group and a breakout star in the legal field, having been named to the role in January 2025 after less than six years with the firm. With nearly a decade of comprehensive litigation experience, she is a conscientious and detail-oriented attorney who has worked on a wide range of complex coverage disputes and commercial litigation.
McDonald has established herself as a go-to expert in business interruption coverage, particularly for losses arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. Her practice is extensive, representing a broad spectrum of clients in retail, entertainment, gaming, finance, energy and transportation, both in California and across the country.
Her litigation prowess is marked by significant victories. Recently, McDonald secured a key summary judgment for an international technology company, defeating allegations that certain agreements violated California’s “Yelp law” (Civil Code Section 1670.8). The client uniformly described her work as “excellent.”
Her commitment to service is further demonstrated through a busy pro bono practice. She has spent years representing a Honduran family seeking asylum, successfully securing Special Immigrant Juvenile Status for the two younger members, placing them on a path to citizenship, and obtaining a dismissal of removal proceedings for all three. She has also provided hundreds of hours of pro bono assistance to policyholders affected by recent wildfires.
Ms. McDonald earned her J.D. magna cum laude from Notre Dame Law School, where she was a Senior Editor of the Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics, & Public Policy and studied at the London Law Centre. She received her B.A. in History cum laude from the University of San Francisco, which included a year of study at the University of Oxford.
