Gordon J. MacDonald (born November 27, 1961) is an American lawyer and jurist who served as the 37th chief justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court from March 4, 2021 until his resignation on September 15th, 2026. A Republican, he previously served as the 30th attorney general of New Hampshire from 2017 to 2021 and, before entering public office, was a congressional chief of staff, a federal appellate law clerk, and a commercial-litigation partner at Nixon Peabody LLP.
As attorney general, MacDonald created a Civil Rights Unit and oversaw investigations involving St. Paul's School, the Youth Development Center, and the Hillsborough County Attorney's office, and pursued litigation concerning the Wire Act, PFAS contamination, and Massachusetts's taxation of remote workers.
The Executive Council rejected his first nomination as chief justice by a 3–2 vote in 2019 and confirmed him on renomination in January 2021, after the office had remained vacant for about eighteen months. As chief justice, he has led initiatives involving behavioral-health diversion, domestic-violence procedures, court efficiency, and judicial funding; written opinions on disability accommodation, public access to police-misconduct records, transgender-student privacy, and education taxation; and chaired a national committee on legal-education and admissions reform.
Beginning in late 2025, his tenure drew scrutiny over an employment payment to a senior court administrator; a state Department of Justice review found no reasonable suspicion of criminal conduct but concluded that human-resources best practices had not been followed, with legislative and litigation developments following. He began a medical leave of absence on July 24, 2026.https://ledgertranscript.com/2026/09/15/nh-chief-justice-resigns-ethics-violation/ He resigned effective immediately on September 15, 2026.https://www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2026-09-15/nh-chief-justice-gordon-macdonald-resigns-amid-ethics-probe-newhampshire-supreme-court
Early life and education
MacDonald was born on November 27, 1961, in Los Angeles, California, to Marcelline (Kuglen) MacDonald and Gordon J. F. MacDonald, a geophysicist and environmental scientist who served on the first Council on Environmental Quality and joined Dartmouth College's faculty in 1972. His family moved to Hanover, New Hampshire when he was about ten; he attended public schools there and graduated from Hanover High School.
He earned a A.B. in government from Dartmouth College in 1983, cum laude with High Honors, after writing an honors thesis on the peace movement in the Netherlands. He graduated from Cornell Law School in 1994, magna cum laude, was elected to the Order of the Coif, and served as an article editor of the Cornell Law Review, which published his student note, "Stray Katz: Is Shredded Trash Private?", 79 Cornell L. Rev. 452 (1994).
Early career
Congressional and political work
Before law school, MacDonald spent more than seven years on the Washington staff of U.S. Senator Gordon J. Humphrey, Republican of New Hampshire, serving from 1985 as a legislative aide and legislative director and becoming chief of staff in 1990; his work focused principally on energy, environmental, and public-works issues.
He later left private practice during 1999–2000 to work for Dan Quayle's presidential campaign and Humphrey's campaign for governor of New Hampshire. His Republican affiliations also included serving as counsel to the New Hampshire Republican State Committee, attending the 2016 Republican National Convention as a Marco Rubio delegate, sitting on the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy board from 2010 to 2017, and helping found the New Hampshire lawyers chapter of the Federalist Society around 2013.
Legal practice
From 1994 to 1995, MacDonald clerked for Judge Norman H. Stahl of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and was admitted to the New Hampshire and Massachusetts bars in 1995. He was a litigation associate at Hale and Dorr LLP (now WilmerHale) in Boston from 1995 to 1997 and at Nelson, Kinder, Mosseau & Gordon, P.C. in Manchester from 1997 to 1999. After his campaign work, he joined Nixon Peabody LLP in Manchester in 2001 and was a litigation partner from 2005 until 2017. His commercial-litigation practice focused on hospitals, health-care systems, and trade associations in reimbursement and taxation disputes.
MacDonald represented health-care providers challenging a 2009 law transferring about $110 million from the New Hampshire Medical Malpractice Joint Underwriting Association to the state general fund. In Tuttle v. New Hampshire Medical Malpractice Joint Underwriting Ass'n, the state Supreme Court held that the transfer violated policyholders' vested property rights, and funds were returned to about 6,000 policyholders. He also represented New Hampshire hospitals in Medicaid reimbursement-rate and Medicaid Enhancement Tax litigation, culminating in a 2014 omnibus settlement for twenty-seven hospitals implemented through legislation signed by Governor Maggie Hassan.
His clients also included Purdue Pharma, requiring his later recusal from the state's opioid litigation, and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester in clergy-abuse settlement proceedings. He authored the third and fourth editions of the treatise Wiebusch on New Hampshire Civil Practice and Procedure.
Professional service
MacDonald served on the New Hampshire Supreme Court Board of Bar Examiners from 2004 to 2017 and chaired it from 2010, helping implement the Daniel Webster Scholar Honors Program at the University of New Hampshire School of Law and leading the state's transition to the Uniform Bar Examination. He was a National Conference of Bar Examiners trustee from 2014 to 2017; chaired the state Supreme Court's Commission on the New Hampshire Bar in the 21st Century in 2016–2017; and also served on the Access to Justice Commission (2012–2017), the Campaign for Legal Services Leadership Council (chair, 2012–2015), the Committee on Character and Fitness (2018–2021), and as an Eleanor Campbell Charitable Fund trustee (2014–2017).
As a volunteer with the Bar Association's Domestic Violence Emergency (DOVE) Project, he represented domestic-violence victims in protective-order cases pro bono. He received the Bar Association's Distinguished Service to the Public Award in 2014 and the Campaign for Legal Services' John E. Tobin Jr. Justice Award in 2017. Discussing access to justice, he cited trial courts in which more than 90 percent of litigants in some types of important cases were self-represented and called closing that gap "enormously important".
Attorney General of New Hampshire
Appointment and tenure
Newly elected Governor Chris Sununu nominated MacDonald as attorney general in March 2017. Although he lacked prosecutorial experience, he was known for litigation against the state on behalf of hospital clients and received broad support in the legal community. The Executive Council confirmed him unanimously on April 5, 2017, and he was sworn in on April 13, succeeding Joseph Foster. He headed a department of about 141 employees, including 61 attorneys, and co-chaired National Association of Attorneys General committees on charities and training.
Civil rights and police accountability
In December 2017, Sununu and MacDonald announced a Department of Justice Civil Rights Unit and diversity advisory council to investigate and prosecute civil-rights violations and hate crimes, coordinate enforcement, and improve community outreach; the unit was later expanded as complaints rose.
His office issued 2018 guidance for the Exculpatory Evidence Schedule, or "Laurie List," of officers with potential credibility problems. Litigation over the list's confidentiality continued through his tenure until the state Supreme Court ruled in October 2020 that it was not a confidential personnel document.
Institutional investigations and oversight
In July 2017, the department opened a criminal investigation into St. Paul's School's handling of sexual-assault and abuse reports. In September 2018, MacDonald said investigators had evidence supporting possible institutional child-endangerment charges, but the State instead entered a five-year agreement, described in contemporary reporting as unprecedented, requiring an independent compliance overseer, reporting and training reforms, victim assistance, and reimbursement of certain costs. When the first overseer, Jeffrey Maher, resigned in October 2020, alleging resistance and an intolerable working environment, MacDonald called the allegations serious, and the agreement continued with additional terms.
In July 2019, the department announced indictments against two former Youth Development Center counselors and a wider investigation of alleged abuse at the state youth detention facility. It dismissed dozens of indictments in March 2020, saying speedy-trial deadlines would constrain the expanding investigation and that charges could be refiled; most resulting prosecutions, verdicts, settlements, and compensation programs occurred after MacDonald left office.
In September 2019, after Hillsborough County Attorney Michael Conlon declined MacDonald's suggestion that he resign amid complaints from police chiefs, MacDonald placed the county office's day-to-day criminal-law-enforcement functions under state supervision, citing prosecution and management failures; Conlon remained in office and disputed the allegations. The Executive Council rejected MacDonald's proposal that former Manchester Police Chief David Mara oversee the office; modified state supervision continued until June 2020.
Civil and federal litigation
Because MacDonald had represented Purdue Pharma, he recused himself from the state's opioid case; under screened leadership, the department sued the company in August 2017.
In February 2019, the department and the New Hampshire Lottery Commission challenged the federal government's revised Wire Act interpretation, which threatened online lottery sales and interstate products. A federal district court ruled in June 2019 that the Act applied only to sports gambling, and the First Circuit affirmed in January 2021.
New Hampshire also sued eight chemical manufacturers, including 3M and DuPont-related entities, in May 2019 over alleged statewide PFAS contamination, seeking investigation, remediation, treatment, monitoring, and natural-resource damages.
In October 2020, MacDonald filed an original action in the U.S. Supreme Court, New Hampshire v. Massachusetts, challenging Massachusetts's taxation of New Hampshire residents working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic, arguing that the policy infringed New Hampshire's sovereignty. Other states supported New Hampshire, the U.S. Department of Justice supported Massachusetts, and the Court declined jurisdiction in June 2021, after MacDonald had become chief justice.
Election law and COVID-19 orders
During MacDonald's tenure, the department investigated and prosecuted individual wrongful-voting cases and defended the 2017 voter-registration law known as SB 3. Election activists later criticized his handling of a roughly 300-vote discrepancy in the 2020 Windham recount.
From March 2020, the department advised on and defended Governor Sununu's COVID-19 emergency orders, including the gathering restriction challenged in Binford v. Sununu. A March 2020 memorandum instructed law enforcement to emphasize public information and voluntary compliance, but enforcement against small businesses later became a source of opposition to MacDonald's judicial confirmation.
Chief Justice of New Hampshire
Nomination and confirmation
2019 nomination and rejection