Meet Edward J. McDonough Jr.

Of Counsel

Born in Worcester and raised in Springfield, Justice Edward J. McDonough Jr. graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1977 with a Bachelor of the Arts in History. He then earned his Juris Doctor from Western New England College School of Law in 1981, qualifying for the Law Review, and graduating magna cum laude. While in law school Justice McDonough served as a Student Law Clerk at Egan, Flanagan & Cohen, P.C. and, upon graduation, continued as an associate. He became a partner in the firm in 1987 and served three terms as its Managing Partner. His diverse practice included civil rights law, general liability issues, premises liability, prison law, discrimination, insurance law, medical malpractice, employment law and personal injury law. He was lead or sole trial counsel in over sixty Superior Court and United States District Court jury trials. He also served as appellate counsel, representing his clients the Supreme Judicial Court, the Appeals Court, the United States First Circuit Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States. In 2004 he was admitted to Fellowship in the prestigious American College of Trial Lawyers, where Fellowship is by invitation only and limited to one percent of lawyers admitted to state practice.

In 2013, Justice McDonough was appointed by Governor Deval Patrick as a Justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court presiding as trial judge over serious criminal felony and major civil actions. In 2015, the Chief Justice of the Superior Court appointed him as Regional Administrative Justice for Western Massachusetts (Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin and Berkshire Counties), and to Superior Court Committees on Implicit Racial Bias, Public Outreach, Civil Rules, Technology and the Attorney Conducted Panel Voir Dire Pilot Project. On September 13, 2017, Governor Charlie Baker, appointed Justice McDonough to the Massachusetts Appeals Court. Thereafter, in August, 2020 – yearning to return to presiding over jury trials — acting on Judge McDonough’s application, Governor Baker reappointed him to the Superior Court where he presided over civil and criminal jury and jury-waived trials until his retirement from the bench in February of 2025. Thereafter, Judge McDonough happily returned to private practice at Egan, Flanagan and Cohen, P.C., trying major civil jury trials and other litigation matters as well as corporate investigations for public and private entities.

Justice McDonough has been active both in education and a number of professional associations. He has been a member of the Hampden County and Massachusetts Bar Associations. He has taught at Elms College and at Bay Path University. Additionally, he has been active in his community serving as a board member of Interfaith Homes of Longmeadow providing senior housing, as chair and member of his parish council, and as a youth baseball, football and basketball coach. Judge McDonough is married (Melissa) and has six children.

• Massachusetts
• United States Supreme Court
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
• United States Court of Federal Claims
• U.S. Court for the District of Massachusetts

• University of Massachusetts (Amherst), 1977
• Western New England University School of Law, J.D., 1981

• American College of Trial Lawyers (Fellow, 2004; Judicial Fellow, 2013-present)
• American Bar Association
• Massachusetts Bar Association
• Hampden County Bar Association