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Portrait of Geoffrey McDonald

faculty

Geoffrey McDonald

Assistant Professor

Law School / Faculty

Curriculum Vitae

Contact

508-985-1142

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UMass School of Law 218

Education

Emory UniversityJD/PhD
Yale UniversityMAR
Wesleyan UniversityBA

Teaching

  • Bankruptcy
  • Contracts
  • Commercial Law
  • Jurisprudence

Teaching

Programs

Teaching

Courses

Study of the development of common law concepts of enforceable promises. Encompasses the basic principles controlling the formation, performance, and termination of contracts. Includes the doctrines of offer and acceptance, consideration, conditions, breach, damages, and the Stature of Frauds.

A survey of commercial lending transactions, with particular emphasis on Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code.

The course provides individual students with the opportunity to complete an independent legal research and writing project under the supervision of a full- time faculty member with expertise in the area studied. Permission of Full-Time Professor; Permission of Associate Dean required for second I.L.R. Of the 90 credits required for graduation, students are required to earn at least 65 in courses that meet in regularly scheduled class sessions. This course does not count toward the 65 credit requirement.

Research

Research interests

  • Bankruptcy
  • Commercial Law
  • Jurisprudence
  • Ethical Theory
  • Law/Religion

Select publications

See curriculum vitae for more publications

  • Geoffrey K. McDonald (forthcoming 2025).
    Love Thy Neighbor: Religious Ethics, Homelessness Amelioration and the Free Exercise Clause
    Wake Forest J.L. & Pol’y, 16
  • Geoffrey K. McDonald (2024).
    Addressing Legal Resolution to Homelessness in the Context of Contemporary Moral Philosophy
    Wash. U. Jur. Rev. 49, 17
  • Geoffrey K. McDonald (2022).
    Homelessness in the COVID Era: Utilizing the Bankruptcy Solution
    Yale L. & Pol’y Rev. 122, 41

Professional Background

Geoffrey McDonald is an Assistant Professor of Law at UMass Law School. Professor McDonald teaches in the areas of contracts, bankruptcy, commercial law, jurisprudence and ethical theory. He previously taught jurisprudence, moral philosophy and theology at Emory University, while completing his Ph.D. degree.

Before coming to UMass, McDonald practiced law in New York City for fifteen years, including both private practice and public interest work. He represented creditors, debtors, trustees and other significant parties in interest in some of the largest, most prominent and complex Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases in this country. In the five years immediately prior to joining the faculty, he worked as a public interest attorney in the South Bronx, where his practice was focused on preventing homelessness by providing free legal services to poor people facing eviction or foreclosure. He also worked extensively in the consumer bankruptcy context.

In his research, McDonald focuses on technical bankruptcy questions as well as the moral basis of bankruptcy, including the interrelated issues of debt, justice, and forgiveness, with particular emphasis on the constitutional and jurisprudential dimensions. His research interests also include constitutional law, especially constitutional rights, jurisprudence, ethical theory, and law/religion. He is the author of several articles, including The Question of Consent in Executive Benefits: Can Bankruptcy Courts Exercise the Judicial Power of the United States Under Article III Based on Litigant Consent Alone?, which was published as the lead article in the peer reviewed American Bankruptcy Law Journal.

Professor McDonald received his B.A. in Philosophy from Wesleyan University, his M.A.R. in Philosophy of Religion from Yale University, where he also studied jurisprudence and legal philosophy at Yale Law School, his Ph.D. in Religion (Ethics & Society) and J.D. from Emory University, and his LL.M. in Bankruptcy from St. John’s University School of Law.